All One can Loose, All One can Gain
by I Am The Silver Lining
Summary: A femme of faith, a femme of data, put them together and you get an unlikely and strong friendship, give them a vital mission which involves crossing the universe and you have... a very crazy road trip. Oc/Oc f/f fic Rated M for dark themes, mass death, future mature themes, violence
1. Chapter 1: Good Morning

**Chapter one: Good Morning**

It was early morning on Cybertron. The cycle had only just started and bots of all shapes and sizes were pulling themselves out of their berths to start their jobs and professions. Vendors set up shops in the crowded streets of Iacon, Government officials prepared for mid-cycle meetings, and others wondered off to their modestly paid jobs.

Not everything was as shining as Iacon, however. In the less pleasant parts of Cybertron, Gladiators took up swords and shields for their morning trainings, slaves pulled at the chains that chafed at their armor, and labor bots prayed to a deity they hardly believed in that they'd survive to see the next cycle.

Cybertron was the home to a caste system, and a harsh one at that. The highest case was the Government officials, with the current Prime at the head. Then the Noble caste, the Medical and Science caste, and the Arts caste. All were apart of the highest tier in cybertronian caste system, and lived easy lives.

The middle caste had it quite easy as well, their jobs and discoveries meant to benefit the higher casts. The Enforcers, Cybertron's law enforcement, are the first on the list. Followed by the Cultural Investigation caste, Programming caste, the Data cast, and the building and Civil engineering caste.

The lowest caste had it the worse. They lived in the slums, the gutters where higher castes shoved their garbage when they no longer wanted it. The gladiators, the slaves, miners and industrial workers; whatever they made went to higher castes, with scraps left over for them. Many of the lower castes flocked to places like Kaon, or the lower levels of Iacon.

For one femme however, class didn't matter, all of them towered over her as she tried her hardest to slip through the crowds which filled Iacon, at present it was the safest way, her mentor had offered an escort, but she knew that would of drawn too much attention. Her two hooved pedes clacked unlike the heavy stomps of those around her, the cacophony of sounds causing her pointed audios and small aft long tail to remain pinned against the surrounding armour. A cluster of data pads clutched tight to her modestly endowed chassis as she was blatantly aware of the protoform showed by her lack of armour on her long double jointed pedes and shoulderplates. It was likely just her anxiety but it still had her cursing her luck that the only delivery mech trusted for this destination called in sick not a joor before this certain request was made. The current situation however which she found herself at the unfortunate centre of, was not helping her nerves in any way shape or form... that escort might of been a really bad thing to turn down…

Her destination was only a little way away now, but that still didn't soothe her, her free servo unlisted just long enough for her to pull out her universal security clearance card, being Alpha Trion's permanent assistant had some serious benefits. The moment she could, she broke through the crowd and took the steps in two's vents no longer laboured, until she realised she was out in the open, then she was taking the stairs in threes and she practically bolted inside, and shoved the card up into the security guards faceplates before he could so much utter a syllable.

"Luna of the Iacon Hall of Records head data clerk, I'm hear to make a delivery to Hymnal head Priest." She declared, voice stern as she had been trained to project herself, the mech near instantly stepped aside allowing her to pass. His optics remaining on the lightly built strange and alien like femme as she power walked further into the temple, he could sworn he'd seen microscopic fur covering the femme on both her silver armour and blue, even the calm blue which ran from the underside of her helm under her frontal armour, and forking along the armour revealing the protoform of her tank area. He'd heard if the head data clerk, but to see she was actually such a small thing had him and the other guards stumped... as well as confirmed the rumours buzzing around recently that she wasn't entirely a Cybertronian femme.

"Just take the elevator down, they are in the innermost Temple" he said, staring after her. He pointed to an elevator that went down into the very depths of Cybertron. The Temple was the furthest down, one of the very first ever built and near the core of Cybertron: Primus' spark.

Luna stepped into the elevator and pushed the "down" button. The elevator gave a small jerk before descending into the depths of Cybertron. It was about a half a jour before the elevator slowed to a stop and doors 'ping'ed open.

The doors opened to reveal a large, dimly lighted cavern. The ceiling was high above her helm, large enough for a gestalt to stand upright comfortably. Crystals lined the walls, casting a dim glow, just enough for one to see around.

All sorts of things sat on the ground of the cavern: offerings to Primus in the forms of jewels, furnishings, food, and other finery. Luna was able to walk down a small path through the center of the cavern to the back where a large building was built into the walls of Cybertron.

The temple was of the finest craftsmanship, rumored to have been built by the original 13 themselves. Statues sat on either side of the large entrance, polished stairs leading to a jewel encrusted door that glowed brightly. The crystals around the temple seemed to pulse as if they were filled with life, in time with a low thrumming sound that vibrated through Luna's frame.

Luna stumbled around the dimly lit cavern, enamored with the shiny constructions. She quite like big, shiny things. Her hoofs clinked on the metal floor as she came to the door and gave it a light few taps with her knuckles. The door swung slowly open at the third knock and Luna was able to see inside.

The Temple was just as spacious as the cavern before it, with bright white and gold pillars holding the ceiling up. The crystals in the temple were bigger and brighter, making it far easier to see around. A few rows of pews sat off to the side, all finely crafted to near perfection. The altar at the far end of the Temple was by far the grandest piece of art anyone could ever see. A large statue made of only the most precious of metals, of Primus himself. Detailed down the inch, and standing tall enough to almost touch the ceiling, it was a sight to behold. 13 statues, all much shorter, stood at the Primus statue's feet. Each came up to about the statue's waist, and were made of different crystals. Each represented one of the original 13 Primes.

Everything was polished to a mirror-like shine, making the light reflect off it and light up the whole Temple beautifully with a rainbow of colors.

All in all, the Temple was breathtaking.

But Luna was not alone in the temple.

Kneeling at the altar was a bot. Their armor shimmered, colored a mix white, gold, deep royal blue and a bright sky blue that glowed brightly. Metal wings and glowing orbs floated around them, held up my magnets in their frame. Yellow and sky blue metal pointed up from their helm, halo-like in their appearance.

Hymnal gave off a celestial feel to others. Their divine connection giving them an aura of calm and peace. A pair of light blue optics seemed to hold a secret that only Hymnal knew.

Luna spoke up "Hymnal? I err, brought those data pads you requested, how have you been down here? In the depths of Cybertron... oh Primus why did it have to be today that the delivery guy got sick?!" she said to herself, her hooves shuffling on the ground.

Hyman stayed kneeling down in front of it in prayer, a soft chant coming from them. It was several moments before they stood and turned to Luna with a pleasant smile on their face.

"Good evening, Luna" they said softly, walking over

Luna shuffled slightly, clawed digits twitching as they grasped the stack, green optics hidden behind her blue visor darting around the unfamiliar place as her animalistic audios stood at high alert. She was half way to bolting, but held moderately firm, looking up to Hymnal she gave them an awkward smile.

"So...sorry, it's just... I know this is a place of worship and all, but I've never... been here before and... oh Primus, I need to sit down... This anxiety is ridiculous, so sorry for taking so much of your time Hymnal." Luna said in a rush.

"Feel free to sit" Hymnal said smoothly, gesturing to the pews off to the side. "It is only you and I down here, Luna. And i assure you, you are wasting none of my time."

Luna sighed, easing herself into a comfortable position, tucking her back bending legs up against her so her clawed pedes could dangle off the edge, so as not to threaten the finely crafted furnishing.

"I still can't get my helm around why you asked for those specific data pads, Alpha Trion just chuckled when I enquired it to him." Luna said, her head shaking side to side a bit.

Hymnal raised one optical brow in amusement, "Most bots don't understand my love for golden age lullabies, Alpha Trion has this crazy thought that I sing them to Primus' spark in my free time" Hymnal sat down, their wings floating closed.

Luna chuckled. "I must admit, my own preference is that of a highly tuned string quartet, two cellos a violin and a bass, all in harmony in an upbeat tone as it helps the nights and days look that much more stunning as ones stares out at them..." She sighed then, lowering her helm into her flat servo as she stared out without direction. "But, one cannot be distracted by such wonderful sounds when an overcharged mech is trying to break in through a window a quarter their size!"

Hymnal let out a light laugh, their voice never rising above a certain volume. "Your job sounds most interesting, Luna" they hummed, their optics twinkling in amusement. "I am partial to the harp myself"

Luna nudged Hymnal's side in good nature. "We have one at the Hall you know~ Perhaps one cycle you can bless us with your presence at have a try. I myself, am enamored with the Piano, despite my love of string." Luna then added. "And said job will eventually lead to my end, as calm as it is, no place is immune to chaos"

Hymnal hummed, a smile on their face.

"Perhaps" they said softly "It has been quite some time since I've been to the surface. Most of my time is spent here, meditating and repairing the temple." They then looked Luna right in the optics a serious look coming to their face. "Something stirs in the future, and I cannot tell what. I'm afraid that what you say may come to fruition"

Luna however, was not thrown by this revelation.

"Alpha Trion has said the same, and I too can feel it, most cannot, but it feels like something nonphysical, for lack of a better term, is choking me. My instincts are borderline taking over, Hymnal... if you get word of me disappearing, it will be my flight response taking hold, and I will not be found until deemed safe again." She declared, audios tucked against her helm and digits curled in a show of obvious distress. "I am... deeply worried for the future of this world, and like you I cannot think of what."

"You are welcome here if something is to happen on the Surface world. No One but me and the current Primes are privy to the temple's insides, but Primus doesn't mind your presence." Hymnal hummed "A novelty."

Luna gave them a surprised look, audios vertical again as her visor hid not a sliver of the shock which rested in her optics, but then, she seemed to deflate.

"Such an offer... but I am afraid my sense of reasoning is vastly limited when I go into a state of wild flight, Alpha Trion will most likely send me off world the moment something kicks off, what with my spark and all..." She muttered. Servo clenching at her silver chassis, before reaching further up and playing with the large red gem which hung from the thick blue cable on her neck, she'd been found with it, and despite it having more than enough length around her neck to pass her helm, any attempt had revealed that it was held to her by some powerful force, even remaining around the base of her neck in her beast form. "I swear ti was cursed by the very unmaker himself..." She stared at her servos then, twitching the claw tips before letting off an sigh through her vents. "Alpha Trion just gave me the rest of the cycle off... and I have no idea what to do..." She glanced at Hymnal, who was looking at her with a peaceful yet concerned expression. "Oh Primus, I just went on a rambling tirade... sorry, I'll let you get back to your work... nice chatting with you Hymnal, if you ever need any more data pads, feel free to ask." She was already halfway to the doors before she finished speaking a faint blush decorating her faceplates

Hymnal hummed, standing and walking towards Luna. "I have a garden, if you'd like to see it" Hymnal offered to Luna's retreating form. "I have nothing to do this cycle besides read"

Luna halted, audio us twisted back to he before she spun on one pede and rubbed the back of her neck cables, avoiding the semi transparent glass pane which wrapped around and hung under the back of her helm.

"If it's ok with you? I might be tempted to trim your plants though... kinda peckish" The blush which formed quickly grew. "You know, being an Ion deer and all..."

Hymnal gave a soft smile, their wings fluttering lightly.

"It's been a few cycles since i had time to go, i might trim a few as well" Hymnal said, walking forwards. "This way" Hymnal guided Luna to the back of the temple and through a hidden door. They walked down a well lit hallway to a large cavern, filled with every form of Cybertronian plant life, and a few small animals that Hymnal had requested.

The small data clerk barely held back an animalistic trill, rarely having time or safe conditions to leave the hall, her processer almost instantly shifted and the transformation into her beast form was nigh instantaneous, before she near galloped to a nearby tin bush and buried her helm into it. After a few moments though she came back to her senses and jersey her helm back up, audios high in alarm and the front of her muzzle lightly peppered with small splashes of Energon.

"Oh Primus, Hymnal I'm so sorry, I don't know what came over me there!" She exclaimed, reverting back to her bipedal form and tucking back slightly. "Shows how much of a 'civilised' femme I am..."

Hymnal gave a light laugh "feel free to let go in here, Luna" they said, "there is quite a few energon berry bushes you might want to try. There are some on a few electro-trees as well. I'm guilty of coming in here whenever i'm feeling snackish" the Priest gave a slightly sheepish look.

Luna gave her a surprised look before looking back at the bush.

"If you insist... but I fear I just offlined my own appetite, it's been happening quite a lot recently... especially due to some persistent bots I have the misfortune of 'knowing'."

Hymnal waved her to sit down next to some flowers before taking a seat themselves.

"Tell me about it" Hymnal requested, their wings lying in the grass. A look of calm interest on Hymnals faceplates stayed as she looked at Luna. "Sounds like a story"

Luna shook her helm to dispel whatever thoughts were plaguing her and sat, crossing her legs at the lower joint.

"It started a few deca cycles ago, a group of four bots, three mechs one femme, came in with a large collection of creatures all contained in liquid jars, none of them online, they requested for them to be stored until a scientific firm could collect them for 'research purposes', however I had recognised them, at least eight of them at least, all of them were from a recently discovered planet, which is in the process of being declared a protected habitat, as those species are completely unique to that planet. I spoke up about this, and they claimed they had not been aware, they did not say this to me... They said it to Alpha Trion... who was with me and them at the time, the leader of the groups mate, the femme, however then spoke up, asking Alpha Trion if they could... could... could take me to their private hunting reserve... She wanted to make a sport of me before turning me into a pelt!" She exclaimed, gesturing to herself wildly.

Luna continued then. "I was shocked, thankfully Alpha Trion outright refused, stating it was outright illegal to hunt a fellow Cybertronian... bit then one of the other two mechs pipped up saying I was nothing more than the halls pet! And for a high enough price he'd hand me over! Alpha Trion quickly called the guards on them and they were escorted out... their 'specimens' handed over to the Enforcers for transport to a nearby lab so that they could be made good use of... Unfortunately, since then, the group and good majority of those in the same hunting organisation have been making multiple requests, a few every cycle, to denounce my citizenship because I am part beast, despite having equal sentience... and now I'm afraid of being alone too long... hence my even more flight behaviour than normal... Primus I feel like I'm being hunted! And seeing as they technically have not broken any laws, the Enforcers won't take them away!" She sighed, lowering her helm into her servos. "Why was a I created a hybrid?! The only hybrid in recorded history for that matter! I feel like Unicron made me just to watch me suffer!" She looked up to them then. "Hymnal, I don't know what to do... I don't want to be hunted like an animal and turned into a part of some bots collection!"

Hymnal looked very concerned, "Primus made us all in his image, and never intend for Cybertronians to hunt anything. We are all equal in his optics, sadly some forget this" Hymnal gave a sad sound before looking Luna in her optics. "I will come to the surface, bots will listen to what i have to say. And i will make your Citizenship set in stone." they gave a determined look. "For another bot to do such a thing as hunt another living bot is incybertronian. Perhaps they should consider who is the real beast" Hymnal frowned.

"I will return to the surface with you." Hymnal said once more in a tone of finality, before their face softened "You can show me that harp that you promised"

Luna couldn't stop the coolant which was quickly making its way down both sides of her faceplates before she extended her arms out, a silent request for comfort, her built up distress now out in the open form them to see.

"T...Thank you... Primus has truly blessed you spark..." she said

Hymnal hugged Luna in a firm embrace, her wings coming around as well. "That's why i'm a Priest" Hymnal joked lightly, hugging luna a bit tighter.

Luna chuckled brokenly at first before it turned to one full of mirth. "True true, so, want to do a Piano Harp Duet or something? I kill at Erasni Syphonia scores."

"I'd be delighted" Hymnal said, smiling. "What time do you need to return to the surface?" they asked, still hugging Luna with their arms and wings.

Luna checked her chronometer. "Two joors and then Alpha Trion sends a search party out looking for me... I think my appetite just came back." She mumbled, green optics locked on the same bush as before. "I haven't been able to keep a meal down in cycles since this whole debacle started up... and now it's repaying me with an a vengeance." She groaned, one arm slipping out of the hug to instead wrap around her now far more vocal middle.

"Then please treat yourself to the fruits of the garden." Hymnal offered, waving a servo around at the trees and plants. "Most don't know that this garden is one room away from the spark of Primus, it makes the fruit full of energy that is different that those on the surface."

Luna hummed, pulling away and carefully striding back over, before kneeling before the plant.

"Thank you Primus for this blessing you bestow to all non Cybertronian beings who walk your great creation." After that her frame had returned to her beast form and half divided, half shoved her helm into the bush, effectively stuffing her faceplates with every berry her optics caught sight of. At one point mulling something like 'so good' as she continued to wolf down the delectable treats.

Hymnal let out a light laugh, picking a fruit from a bush she had been sitting next to, blessing it, then taking a bite. They hummed happily where they sat.

It took a while, and three more bushes before Luna flopped down on the ground with her pedes tucked under her, neck and helm resting against her side and narrow helm partially covered in Energon, which she took note of. "Normally I'm a lot more refined when it comes to food." She muttered drearilly, before her optics slid closed and she began letting off an odd soft grunt every few astroseconds. Evidently it hadn't been just food her stress had been preventing her from enjoying.

Hymnal gave a soft smile and stood quietly, they set their internal clock to 1 and a half jours so they could wake Luna at a good time. They left the room and came back with a small blanket they had made in their free time some time ago, and laid it over Luna. Hymnal sat, taking cross position and resting their arms lightly on their legs. Hymnal let the soft pulse of Primus' spark lull them into meditation.

( **AN:** **This is an Oc/Oc story, Written by me (Silver) and my co-author Moonlightdeer (aka Moon) Hymnal goes by They/them pronouns, but their frame is femme. Luna goes by She/her and also has a femme frame.**

 **Luna:** **moonlightdeer739. deviantart art/Luna-Cybertronian-version-of-my-avatar-602251348 (remove spaces)**

 **Hymnal** **: fav. me/da5lx9e (remove spaces)**

 **Moon: Heyo! Just to point out Silver and myself are Co - authors of this fic, and we're both really looking forward to making the most out of the potential this story has! Hope you all enjoy it! Cause we already love it!**

 **Silver: Please review! Till all are one!**


	2. Chapter 2: A New Unwelcome Face

**Chapter two: A New Unwelcome Face**

It had been less than a cycle since she'd returned from the temple with Hymnal's reassurance that all would be fixed soon in regards to her citizenship.

But Luna was, at present, less worried about the potential bots trying to hunt her like a wild thing, and more concerned about the massive silver and red mech one of her betas, Orion Pax, was leading around.

Currently she was observing the scene from one of the upper levels, leaning against the glass wall as blue soothing light bled down on her and all things in the hall from multiple different angles, despite the calm aura however, her defected spark was still twisting and churning uncomfortably within her chamber, after a moment she clutched at the armour around it, rubbing it as she let off a strained hiss.

She had to calm her spark down, but the dark and potentially murderous aura the massive Kaonian mech radiated in her home, made it clear she would find no peace until he left.

Her audios hitched up behind her when careful, calculated pede steps came behind her. She did not need to look to know it was her Alpha, the leader of her unofficial herd which resided within the halls, Alpha Trion. It was kind of ironic how well his designation fit her title for him.

"You are distressed young one." She let him call her that, he was of such an impossible age that no matter how old she became, she would be nothing but equivalent to a youngling, if anyone else had declared her as that title since she matured to adulthood… well, her spark never had problems when she was mad, and when mad, her hooves where weapons even the elite guard soldiers didn't dare trifle with.

"It is the mech below, his aura… it's not… it's not healthy… it is concerning to me how close one of my betas is to him, evidently he sees him as a friend, but I do not know if it is equally reciprocated…" She tried to explain, turning to the ancient mech who'd taken in the tiny foal an unknown and still undiscovered femme had left in the at the time empty lobby, the foal barely joors old and too shaken by something to even try to stand for the first time.

She'd long since forgotten what had scared her, who birthed her, and anything else about her origin. Her memory files did not falter though, when remembering how she, once on her pedes, froliced around the hall without a care in the world, mostly staying close to his pedes, her foalhood was something she held close, especially the look on her Alphas faceplates when she transformed for the first time.

He hummed in the back of his neck cables, stepping to her left side to get a better look of the mech causing such distress to his unofficial daughter.

Unofficial because, despite being given citizenship all those vorns ago when she'd showed her ability to transform and communicate. The Council had refused to allow him to officially adopt the young femme.

Didn't mean he didn't raise her any differently, despite his age, Luna had been a breeze to manage, her adolescent years being far calmer than full Cybertronians, she'd always been docile in nature, even when having fun she was careful.

The data clerks she was now in charge of, often joked that she'd missed that stage of rebellion outright and had been a fully matured femme from the start.

None of them were there when she dumped a bowl of Energon over her helm to see if it would make her glow too.

Holding in the chuckle the memory almost called he spoke. "It would seem that this mech is a gladiator." Her reaction was obvious, tucking back, optics narrowing and clawed digits clutching the rail tight. "If my memory does not fail me, I believe this is the one who's developing quite the following due to his speeches about removing the council and starting Cybertron again so that all are equal… a noble vision, if he didn't want to do it by force if he is denied."

"If he becomes violent, he must go, no questions asked." She hissed through clenched denta.

He nodded, wrapping an arm over her shoulder plates, she was so much smaller than him, thin yet well tuned, he knew personally when she once threw on of their larger guards through a glass wall when he'd tried to have a bout with her on one of the non glass walls.

It had been quite a sight as he and a good few of her data clerks were rushing to help pull him off, when she grabbed his arm, kicked off the floor, yanking him into the air with the force, spun mid air and slung him over their helms.

There had been no hesitation in firing him once he woke back up from the stasis lock the impact had put him in.

Luna was jolted when her designation was called, helm snapping down she realised Orion was waving her down. "Miss Luna! My friend wants to meet you!"

Trion's arm shifted off her as she ran the pros and cons, with a sigh she heated herself up I ti a crouch on the railing, before pushing off and allowing her frame to plummet straight down towards the ground level, from over ten floors up.

The powerful shock absorbers in her legs took the brunt of the impact, but her servos were still needed to brace herself for a moment before she pushed herself upright and brushed the non existent dust from her, more a thing to reassure her nothing had fallen off, her paranoia now peeking as she took account of how this mech was easily twice her height, Orion was almost as tall, but he was a loveable innocent soul who got distracted by crystalflies if they were even dull in colour.

This mech however, sent her anxiety to borderline dangerous levels, and her spark was practically screaming at her to get away, her servo returned to her chassis trying to calm it as she etched the other out to the mech, shaking heavily as Orion introduced the two of them, before silencing himself when he took not of how unnerved his boss was, taking stock of the scene realisation dawned on him. He was a moment from leading the gladiator away from the hybrid femme when he spoke cutting off any attempt with his voice. "Your the data clerk there's so many rumours about? A pleasure to make your acquaintance, Orion here speaks fondly of you. And the rumours do not do your beauty justice."

There was a long beat of silence when the area around them seemed to vanish.

It took a moment for Luna to actually acknowledged what had been said, to which she quickly pulled her servo away and tried to hide the blue rising on her faceplates, partially out of embarrassment, and the rest out of irritation that this mech had the audacity to make such an assumption about her own appearance after no more than a glance.

"Flattery has no effect, I merely came down to enquire if the friend of one of my workers wished to learn from the near endless wealth of knowledge we hold within these walls." She announced with a less than discreet hint of venom.

The gladiator evidently picked up on this, and Orion quickly leaned over and whispered, forgetting her advanced hearing capability. "She's not fond of new faces, took two orns for her to open up, her only friend is the high priest!"

She didn't rebuke the mech for his lack of decorum when speaking, but she made sure her glare remained level, intensifying when she spotted the gears starting to turn at the mention of Hymnal, if he was planning something…

Luna's armor bristled, her hairs standing on end as she glared angrily at the mech, a fire entering her optics.

Orion looked at Luna, his optics widening when he realized what she was feeling.

"Uh, let me show you around" Orion said quickly, steering his friend away as fast as he could. Luna let her anger get the best of her for just a moment, and stomped one of her hoofs on the ground, making it shake slightly.

Practically seething she stalks away, sending a ping to the guards to keep a close optic on the gladiator. She didn't trust, like or want him anywhere near the hall, but until he did something wrong there were no grounds to extradite him from the hall.

Alpha Trion does not speak to her as she jumps up again, this time traveling past the level he was on in mere astroseconds despite the height of each data stacked level, he knew it was best to leave her be, a mad Luna was a dangerous cocktail of emotions and kicks able to end many a far more armoured bot, despite her size and lack of armour in comparison to others.

Landing on her private floor, she strode into her own room, her three digit servo pressed against the specialised scanner so that the doors could slide open and reveal her expansive berth room.

The view had been rated as one of the most scenic in the Upper hemisphere of Cybertron, and something she often basked in.

Her desk was an expansive sprawl of shelves, raised areas and small trinkets her data clerks has gotten for her from the rarely if ever traversed outside world.

The rest of the space, was covered in a good three to four layers of data pads, some read entirely, their information stored away in her helm for later use, others were partially complete, waiting to be finished.

She had a system, take five new data pads every few cycles when she felt like reading, and return five or more whenever her desk got too cluttered to function properly, at present, there was no such need, instead her attention was focused solely on the holoscreen which hovered just above, once her aft had found her favourite position which prevented her short tail from getting trapped, she waved her servo in an impatient flick, the screen picked up on the motion, turning on with a cheerful ping, despite its owners current mood.

Luna sighed, slumping back into the soft and welcoming material of her chair, servo reaching up so that her digits could slide under her visor and rub her suddenly irritated optics as the call pinged, the ringing stopping and Hymnal appearing on screen. "Luna? What's wrong? Was another one of those requests made?"

"No, no, it's not to do with those idiots… One of my clerks brought a friend to the hall... a Gladiator." Luna rubbed her optics again before moving to try and massage a kink in her neck cables which was often prominent after a long night of improving her own wealth of knowledge, which she'd been doing the lunar cycle before. "There was something... unsettling about him, a dark aura I guess."  
"Not to mention he tried to flirt with me!" She exclaimed, throwing her servo wildly in the air in exasperation.

Hymnal made a slightly disgusted look before they wiped if off their face, but a frown remaining.  
"You say he was with one of your clerks? Do you know why he brought him to the hall?" Hymnal inquired, looking concerned. "While i trust your judgment in your clerks, I'm unsure of the company this one keeps. I know you know this, Luna, but there is many precious things in the Hall, information only a few are privy to."

Luna nodded. "That's what first set the alarm bells off in me, it's that gladiator who's doing all those speeches about recreating Cybertron right after slaughtering a competitor! And to think Orion of all mechs brought him in! I fear he's using my clerk for his own advancement." The growl was something she didn't bother to try and hold in, that mech had rubbed her fur the wrong way since he set pede in her sanctuary. "I have ordered the guards to go on full alert and keep close watch, he tries anything, I'll know... I'm pulling up the security cameras now."  
The feeds were crisp and clear as she zoomed in on the combat section, Orion was speaking animatedly about something whilst he was looking through a data pad, a few taps later and she found it was a data pad about how to take out a foe without offlining them, in other words, how to cripple them, leaving them online to suffer for the rest of their living lives.

"So he is the mech that has the other Preists on edge." Hymnal said.  
"What is it?" Hymnal asked, taking note of Luna's grim look. "What is he doing?"

Luna growled again, grinding her flat denta together. "Information on how to permanently cripple their enemy, they're in the back archives of the combat sector... Primus he's looking into how to make his competitors suffer for the rest of their cycles! As if killing wasn't barbaric enough already! How is Orion not noticing this!?"

Hymnal's frown deepened, "You should send the guards to remove him. A gladiator has no business learning such things."

Luna shook her helm. "Can't without starting a fight, and a mech like that could easily offline some of our guards. Our servos are tied... but I can call the Enforcers, but he's technically not done anything illegal... yet... Primus, what is with everybot suddenly deciding to digit the line!?" She hissed, rubbing the sides of her helm, before rubbing her raised pointed audios, which remained as they did in her beast form.

Hymnal hummed, "I know you are not happy with his presence, but try not to let it stress you. It's not good for your spark. When i come up I'll bring some of my crystals, drinking them will help your spark a bit. The crystals stem from Primus's spark itself, the energy within should help a bit." Hymnal continued at Luna's rarely seen confused look. "I'm sure if you take even doses for the rest of your life it could help more. I don't know the extent of it's healing abilities, but it can only do good" Hymnal said, their servos folding in their lap.

Luna paused, lifting her servo and raising a digit to ask for a moment before standing up and bolting towards a data shelf out of Hymnal's view her optics lighting up that bit brighter as her visor activated, streaming data constantly as she ran her digits over the sides, before snatching one out with such practice it did not even disturb the fine coating of dust which was forming on the top edge. Activating it, her digits worked fast, the three pointed tips calling upon a bounty of information as she began to mumble, before sharply turning it off and nearly slamming it back into the tight space it had come from, she practically bolted back to her chair, sliding into it with practiced ease before her digits were flying over the holographic keyboard, still mumbling uninterrupted at a rate which lost Hymnal, the data was still streaming down the femmes optics as tab after tab lit up on the screen, more data, all of it being scanned by the hybrid femme before shutting it all down so that she could stare at Hymnal, visor finally slowing down, but the data didn't stop entirely. "2.95674 micronites, that's the maximum daily dose before it does my spark harm due to over energisation, Hymnal I swear you are the ultimate lifesaver and, the greatest of friends. And now, I'm going to crash for a few breeds because I just gave myself a pounding helm ache!" Without another moment passing, her helm fell down to rest on her moderately endowed chassis, optics closed and visor blacked out. Meaning she didn't see Megatronus slip a data pad into into a hidden subspace whilst distracting Orion so the young data clerk remained unaware.

Hymnal laughed softly, shaking their helm. They turned off the holofeed, sending a message to Luna to call them if they needed anything further.  
Hymnal turned away from their console, and stood, their wings folding neatly behind them as they moved deeper into the temple. The glow from the crystals bounced off their armor, making it look like they themselves were glowing. It took a few minutes before Hymnal reached the deepest part of the temple. The crystals there pulsed brighter than any other and seemed to humm with energy. They placed their servo on one of the walls and watched as it folded back to reveal the true treasure of Cybertron.  
Primus' spark in the the Well of Allsparks.  
Hymnal looked up as they entered the the area, seeing a small dot of light high above them where the Well opened to the Surface. Crystals lined the whole Well, thick veins of energon stemming from Primus' spark and traveling throughout Cybertron to feed Primus' creations. Hymnal moved closer to Primus' spark and kneeled before it. They spoke, their words flowing out in a soft chant as they spoke in one of the few sacred languages.  
Hymnal asked for guidance and hope, for the well being of all and the strength they needed before asking if they could have some of the energon from the Well. Hymnal waited for a moment, silent and still, listening to a voice only they seemed to hear. They stood and went to the side of the Well and lightly pulled on one small crystal. The crystal gave way easily in their servo, and Hymnal was careful to wrap it in mesh cloth before storing it in their subspace. They thanked Primus once more before stepping out of the Well.

It was only a few breems later that the alarm went off, not one to wake the hybrid up, although it did that in process. It's main priority was to alert that sensitive information had been 's optics snapped open, visor lighting deep blue as the alarm's title blared across her screen.

It took less than three astroseconds for Luna to, in a lower caste mech or femmes words, flip the scrap out and go into a rage mode which would of sent the unmaker himself to the deepest recesses of space.

It took even less time for her to order a complete shut down of the hall, the massive blast proof walls which were normally hidden away in both the upper levels and lowest underground levels, roaring to meet one another as they unfolded, locking tight in the middle and blocking all external light, sealing the entire Hall within its protective cocoon.

The internal lights shone a startling red as those in the levels below, who'd been previously minding their own business, jolted with exclamations and queries as to what was going on.

Alpha Trion practically sprinted into Luna's room, the only other bot with access to her sanctuary within her sanctuary, despite his age, he was able to reach the level the Hybrid resided on. "Luna! What is the meaning of this?! The emergency lock down is for only the most serious of emergencies!' His age seemingly forgotten, the ancient mech stood tall, confused and at an increasing rate, more and more alarmed as Luna snarled at her now multi panel screen, optics darting and jarring in their sockets as data streamed in a constant and torrential pace down her visor.

Realisation hit him hard. Something was wrong, horribly, terribly wrong.

Luna was a femme who only did things when there was a reason.

And for such a serious and massive action to be warranted, then there was a legitimate and potentially life changing situation developing.

The femme he considered his daughter suddenly snapped her helm to him, the pale acid and emerald fusion green glow coming from under her visor was the only thing he could make out of her optics, the rest swamped in the data which flowed fast and heavy down her narrow and sweeping visor.

"The data pad carrying the collective knowledge of all cyber viruses and chemicals of mass destruction has been stolen from the red band zone. By the Gladiator Megatronus, the shutdown is following protocol, until the data is received, or in worst case scenario destroyed, along with the perpetrator and potential aids dealt with, the hall will remain on lockdown… I am sorry Alpha, I overworked my processor… and as a result I did not see the crime take place, Orion I know for a fact, was an innocent and unwilling pawn, in this, he does not deserve punishment… and now… I do believe it's time I go on the warpath."

She was out the door in a seething rage before he could so much as utter the first letter of her designation.

Within a few joors, the entire upper caste area of Iacon was under lockdown, Enforcers prowling the streets in their called in hundreds, searching for the Gladiator who'd somehow managed to vanish in a puff of smoke.

At this point as well, Luna was about ready to kick her pede straight through a wall, her knee joints on her right leg bouncing at a rate almost a blur as she glared at the Enforcer Chief who currently found himself under the murderous stare.

"You mean… to tell me… that seven hundred and sixty nine fully trained Enforcers, can't find one bloody mech big enough to step on a mini con without noticing, and rip your helm off with his smallest digit!" She finally declared, slamming bot servos into the table they were sat at.

The Chief stumbled a bit, cursing his luck at having to deal with the Head data clerk on his own, her reputation of having emotions as volatile as a high grade explosive cocktail was proven to him fully, despite her small stature, she was a femme scorned, and his carrier had pounded into his helm, that that was a thing even Unicron feared with a vengeance.

"Ma'am understand…. We have all of upper Iacon to search! Lower Iacon is in the middle of being locked down! We're doing our very best!" He tried to respond, his normally calm and calculating demeanour thrown out that glass window a little way behind him and down the halls murderously steep steps. Now replaced with a genuine fear for his life as the emerald and acid green optics burned into his cerulean blue from behind that deceptively calm blue visor, which even now seemed overrun with data he couldn't believe she could keep track of, her gaze however continued to rage with a fury he swore he never wished to see again.

The sight of one of the femmes data clerks tentatively walking up behind him gave him a shred of hope he'd be able to escape and pull himself back together before the demon femme noticed, hopefully this mech knew how to calm their boss down.

"Err… Mrs Luna? I just got done with being questioned… thank you for supporting…" He placed a servo on the tensed exposed protoform of her unarmoured shoulderplates.

The chief could only watch in sheer awe as the femme seemed to slip into a different reality where the laws of physics where putty to mould, at least that's what came to his helm when the femme spun, throwing herself into the air with the momentum, grabbed the back of the chair with one three digit servo, spun upside down, and delivered two kicks in such immediate succession and speed not only where they a blur, but it sent the poor clerk hurting across the open ground level, crashing into the ground, skipping a few times before rolling into a tumble and coming to rest a few pedes away from the glass wall of the building.

His jaw was nearly unhinged as the femme landed in a squat facing the mech who'd just been sent hurtling across the room by a femme two thirds his size who honestly looked like some experiment gone wrong, not that that thought really mattered as his processor shorted out and he keeled over, crashing to the floor glitched, overwhelmed by the vast number of impossibilities which had just occurred before him.

Luna sat perched for a good breed panting and trying to calm her spark down before she focused in on the one who'd given her the scare.

It was Orion.

He was still laying dazed strewn across the floor, with one of the guards poking his side to see if he would twitch.

An omega…. Messing with the vulnerable frame of one of her betas…

The fact he'd snuck up on her was all but forgotten as she leapt from the chair, sending it crashing to the ground as she transformed mid air, steam erupting from her olfactory sensors as she bounded across the hall like a mad femme, her hooves echoing through the still dead silent hall as she let off a bellow which broke the silence like a thunder clap.

The guard, already aware he'd accidentally crossed a serious line, tried to run, but there was no way his heavily armoured frame was escaping an Ion deer on the warpath.

The moment she was in range of the fleeing guard, she threw herself into a transformation mid bound, and slammed her hooved pede into his heavily armoured back strut, not enough to severely harm, only enough to get the point across.

Didn't mean he wasn't still sent flying a good distance.

She landed on all fours, crouched for a moment before back flipping a few times until she landed next to the now coming too data clerk. "Orion! What were you thinking?! I could've offlined you then!"

The dazed mech chuckled. "I know… I read the warning pamphlet." Before slumping down. "Ow…"

She winced and stepped back to allow the team of medics to check him over. They didn't give her any negative looks though, only sympathetic for both parties, they'd dealt with Luna her entire life cycle, they knew how her flight and fight was something she couldn't fight… it just took over… it was why she was kept primarily in the hall. For everyone's safety and sanity.

Stepping back over to the table she'd been previously sitting at, she took note of the glitched mech. "Great… just great…" She grumbled, moving over to the energon cafe they had on the ground floor, pulling a jug out from behind the counter, which the fem behind the bar let her do without question, Serius was used to it. Jug in servo she then strode over to the large fountain they had as centrepiece for the hall, constantly flowing from the ornately carved imported stone was a seemingly endless supply of coolant. What most didn't know, was after the hall was closed for the lunar cycle, the coolant was replaced with energon, a feature which gave Luna the option of drinking in her beast form more easily if she so felt the urge, which happened from time to time.

Scooping up some of the coolant from the jug she strode back over to the glitched mech, and simply splashed it in his faceplates.

He came round with a startled splutter, optics wide before he turned his attention sharply on the femme above him. "Ma'am, that is not the accurate method if rousing a mech." He finally got out once she'd helped him upright.

Luna just huffed and placed one servo on a jerked out hipplate. "Chief Prowl, that method was the quickest method at present, now I must…" She was cut off when she spotted Alpha Trion gesturing to her to come to him, doing as told she excused herself and quickly reached her Alphas side. "I apologise for the inconvenience sir, I will keep better stock of my surroundings from now on." She declared, having rehearsed the statement quite a few times since she'd inadvertently turned Orion into a giant skipping stone across the hall.

Once again, the ancient mech surprised her by instead placing a comforting servo on her exposed shoulder protoform, giving her a sympathetic look. "Luna, I of all mechs know how difficult it is for you to control that part of you, do not apologise for something out of your control. Including that kick you just gave out newest recruit. Now, what I called you over for, was to alert you to the fact that Hymnal is waiting on the seeker arrival balcony." He couldn't stop the chuckle that left him as the still young silver and blue femme rocketed into the air, landing on one of the pillars for a moment around the thirty fifth floor area before leaping up again, and again, before disappearing onto the ninety seventh floor, where the emergency seeker entrance was.

Moving over to Orion he clapped his eon old servo onto the youthful mechs shoulderplate. "Nothing damaged I hope?"

Orion shook his helm. "No sir, well… besides a concussion and a need to get repainted… I was the at fault party though, I had forgotten to give her warning of my arrival… erm… if I may ask sir? Where did she just go off to?"

Alpha Trion shot the mech a smile before striding away, his armour seeming to glow slightly as he declared. "To see her best friend, who in my opinion, has impeccable timing!"

The statement just left Orion tilting his helm to the side. "Wait… she knows some bot outside those who work in the hall? Who?! She never goes anywhere!"

It was only after the question was out that he realised Alpha Trion hadn't heard him, he knew the mechs hearing was going a bit, but he figured selective hearing was also playing a factor.

Sighing the red blue and silver mech made his way back towards the lift which would take him back to his work station, internally deciding that the moment the lockdown was over, he was taking Jazz up on the offer of going out and relax at one of the nearby night clubs, despite it not normally being his scene, after what his 'friend' had just caused, he needed a stiff drink.

He didn't doubt it was likely the general consensus of most bots working at the Hall and surrounding area at present.

Or it could just be the fact his processor was still being bounced around his helm like like a turbo puppy.

Taking note of the still moderately shell shocked enforcer, he walked over to the Praxian mech. "You must excuse Luna, she's very… passionate about her data, and she can become quite volatile if she's too stressed… it's bad for her spark and so she physically lashes out to protect herself." He tried to explain, finally getting the black and white mechs attention. "I'm Orion, Orion Pax, one of the data clerks here who works under Luna, and you are?" He enquired, extending his servo out to shake.

Still partially dazed, the mech shook back. "Prowl, just Prowl, Chief Enforcer of Upper Iacon, I was promoted an orn ago… This was not in the job description." He lightly joked.

Orion chuckled. "It had been in mine 'Must be willing to sustain potential harm.' At the time I thought it had been a joke, moment I get the job and get out into the main lobby, and first thing I see? A metroplexian sliding across the floor, faceplates down along the floor. Turns out he'd groped her! He was lucky to get out of there with only stasis lock!"

Prowl frowned. "That should be looked into, that is assault."

Orion shook his helm. "Nope, self defense, any significant rise in stress or fear can offline her, she has a spark defect, that grope? Put her in intensive care for three cycles because her spark almost gave out. She doesn't really appreciate it, but she's fragile, and some of the guards we get? Not the brightest about following the rule 'No startling the one who can kick you in two!"

Prowl just stared at the chipper mech. "You're acting like she didn't just send you flying across this level like an empty cube!"

"Yep. Now, I need to get back to work, just because the halls on lockdown doesn't mean we can slack of, right Chief Prowl? You do still have my ex friend to catch… speaking of which, I may have an idea on how we can get the data back..."

 **(AN: (Silver) yoo new chapter :3 yay.**

 **(Moon) too much fun is being had here, but I doubt either us give a damn at this point!**

 **(Silver) even more fun is happening in the RPs ;D**

 **(Moon) Don't give too much away!**

 **(Silver): 'evil laughter'**

 **(Moon) You're as bad as Hymnal I swear**

 **JPrime11: Thanks :D we are enjoying this story so we will continue!**

 **Till all are one!**

 **(Moon) And Silver here stops trying to hint at stuff which is supposed to be saved for later!**

 **(Silver) ;D ;D ;D**

 **(Luna) Will you two pipe down?! Some of us are trying to recharge!**

 **(Hymnal) that's not what you said last night~**

 **(Moon) We leave the context of that to you readers!**

 **Till all are one! (for real this time)**


	3. Chapter 3: Plan? More Like Suicide!

**Chapter three: Plan? More like suicide!**

The moment Hymnal had stepped beyond the threshold and into the hall, Luna was all but dragging them up another few flights of stairs, towards her private level.

"Luna? What's wrong? Why is everything on lockdown?" They tried to question, but still got no answer as they came to a halt outside the reinforced doors, they had a few moments to look at the exquisitely carved curved corridor which ended at some point beyond their view, the carvings depicted a kind of forest land, the walls painted to an accuracy and detail that, had they not been actually metal, and unmoving, they would of thought that a few steps would transport them to a whole different planet.

Glancing at Luna, who was only half a helm over her own helm, she took stock. Those walls, so realistic, meant to trick her psyche, make her feel like she wasn't trapped within the walls of an artificial building, for her own protection.

Her going to see them at the Temple, they realised in that moment, had likely been her first time outside the walls without anybot there with her.

They'd unknowingly put her in such a situation, over golden age lullabies. "Luna? I wish too…" She was cut off when the heavy doors rolled apart like massive circular columns, revealing an expansive open plan room, similar to her gardens back at the temple, only more… untamed.

Vines and other foliage, a lot of which they didn't recognise, grew from seemingly every crevice, flowing across the floor and making a carpet of brightly coloured leaves and creeper vines, the pillars which held up the ceiling entombed in thick branches and even more leaves.

From the ceiling, small multifaceted glowing flowers swayed, lighting the room.

And all of it was organic.

"Luna? Is this your room?"

Luna finally turned to them and nodded, optics narrowed behind her visor, putting them on edge slightly. "Yes, one of them, relaxation and emersion is the main goal for this room. Now, to answer your question of yours, that Gladiator, Megatronus, has stolen a code red level data pad, one containing the entire knowledge of all mass viruses and other mass extinction causing illnesses, natural and laboratory made, and exactly how to make it, how he even got ahold of it, is beyond me. But, as I fear has already happened, in the wrong servos… it could be used to wipe out millions of innocent on Cybertron, and across the galaxies."

The sombre tone had left an air in the room which made Hymnal shuffle slightly, only for it and themselves, to be shattered from that aura by the sound of the Hybrid femme lashing out with her hoov, the two sharp pointed end smashing into a column of plant life which shook from the force, but somehow didn't buckle. "And all because I dozed off! I should've held a more acute vigil! Then none of this would of happened and you wouldn't of had to of come through the emergency entrance!" She exclaimed, clawed digits latching onto her pointed audios and yanking on them, hard.

Her frames reaction was instantaneous, jerking from the sudden pain which ripped directly into her processor, Hymnal could only stand there in shock as Luna began bellowing, sounding nothing like a normal femme as she thrashed her helm from side to side, hooves slamming into the foliage covered ground and ripping large tears into the organic matter, and even the steel below.

Then, she was keeling forwards, her lower knee joints and pedes landing with echoing thuds before she listed to the side and fell facing away from the Priest, curling up into a ball as her servos continued to yank on the sensitive audios.

Carefully they made their way towards the downed femme, kneeling down carefully so as to rest their servo on their side armour.

"Luna, this isn't your fault. You couldn't have possibly known what this mech was going to do. You are not responsible for his actions." Hymnal said.

Luna sighed, rolling onto her back strut and running her six digits down her visored faceplates. "But… I'm head data clerk, it's my job to look after all the data in the hall, and now, one of the most dangerous data pads was stolen, right out from under my recharging optics!"

"But you cannot be everywhere at once" they said.

"True… unless I find some weird way of multiplying myself… but then I'd probably end up half the size or some scrap like that." The Ion deer femme mumbled, drawing a line across her middle to emphasise her point. "I just… wish my frame wasn't so weak, then it'd be able to keep up with my processor and I wouldn't have to rest nearly as much! Meaning I could be far more productive! Slag! I could probably double my efficiency if I didn't have to keep on taking breaks throughout the cycle to avoid frying my processor!" She chuckled.

Hymnal hummed and reached into their subspace, pulling out a large cloth covered crystals that glowed brighter than normal.

"These are the crystals I told you of," they said, unwrapping one of the smaller ones and holding it in their servo. "But you must be very careful, they are very fragile and explosive. But, they should help a bit." They wrapped the mesh cloth back around the crystals and handed them over.

Luna perked up at this, rolling onto her front and carefully picking it up between two digits, before holding it to the right side of her helm and taking a quick vent, this because her olfactory sensors were tucked away under the two panes of metal which framed their faceplates. "So… if it's explosive… how am I supposed to eat it? I'd rather keep my internals just that, internal."

"You have to refine it," they said. "Put it in the energon processing machine to turn it into liquid like normal energon"

"Ahhh…. I don't have one of those… You know, eat the tin leaves and all that, this is my fuel room as well basically." She explained, light blue tint forming on her faceplates as she rubbed the back of her neckcables, again avoiding the band of calm blue glass which wrapped around the back of her helm.

"They should have one at a local bar or restaurant." Hymnal said "We can go to one together if you'd like and have it processed."

"Can't, everything's on lockdown, and besides, no fragging way am I taking you to a bar, ain't you supposed to be all about purity? Trust me, from the stories I've heard, one wrong move, and you're pretty much damn impure three astroseconds later… I think there is a processor in the main rec room, but it's not an area of the hall I frequent."

"Well, I wasn't planning on drinking anything at the bar, but your idea sounds better for us." They responded, rising back up to their full height and offering their servo to their friend. "I hope you don't mind if we skip that duet of harp and piano? Something tells me that such an activity would not bode well with the current situation we find ourselves in. Though, I was looking forward to it." Hymnal helped Luna to stand, "Why don't we make our way down to the processing machine now?"

Rolling her shoulder plates she nodded. "Sure, the only question now is, do you trust me?"

Hymnal tilted their helm to the side, "Of course I do, but why ask?"

Again, Luna didn't give them a verbal answer, instead she grabbed their servos, crossing them, and then with a sudden burst of strength, flipped them around so that they landed on her backstrut, arms around her chassis in a tight and surprised squeeze. "This is why!"

Without another moment of warning, she'd leapt down the hole in the centre of the room, letting off a whoop as they plummeted through the tube, blue lights illuminating them every few moments as they rocketed downwards with the pull of gravity. "Hold on tight!"

Hymnal gasped loudly, their wings folding down tightly to their back as they clung to Luna.

They hit the bottom of the tube a few moments later, Luna's legs absorbing the massive shock easily, not that it didn't jostle Hymnal quite a bit due to the fact that Luna had landed not on just her pedes, but her servos as well, her arms having taken some of the impact force as well.

She held that position for a few moments before tilting her helm round to face the priest, a coy smile on her faceplates, and expression Hymnal couldn't really recall seeing before. "From the fact you're trying to choke me, one would think you thought I'd let you fall?" A slight purr left them as they pushed off the floor with their servos so that she could put herself upright again despite the bot hanging off her back strut. "You know, not intending to offend here, but, lay off the snacks for a bit ok? I think I heard something groan, not sure if it was the floor, or something in me though." She joked, despite the serious tone she stated that in.

Hymnal stuck their glossa out in a very un-Priestley way. Only for Luna to poke it back into her mouth with a digit. "Now, now, we can't have Primus' favourite acting like a little sparkling~ Can we?~"

"Well normally, Primus's favourite is surrounded with bots who treat them as such." Hymnal said, amusement in their optics.

"Oh? Well, from now on, I at least, am going to treat you just as you deserve, like an adolescent punk rocker!"

Hymnal gave off a short laugh, "Now what in Primus's name gives you the idea I, of all bots, am the 'punk rocker' type?"

Luna chuckled, tapping her chin guard in faux contemplation. "You know what, I'm not sure, I think it's the fact that you're cutting off energon circulation to my processor, and the little nymphs are throwing their glitter dust at us."

"Oh," Hymnal said, realizing that they were still holding Luna in a vice like grip. They set their peds on the ground and let go.

Before either of them could step away though, the doors to the place they'd landed in where thrown open with a sharp 'BANG' jolting the two. Luna stumbled back, and Hymnal ended up catching one of her pedes, sending the both of them crashing down when they went to move again, both getting tangled up in the other.

"Owww…." The both groaned, Luna's faceplates currently being pressed into the floor by whatever part of Hymnal was laying on top of that part of her. "Hymnal….. Get… off!"

The one who had thrown the door open was none other than Parixian, one of the Data Clerks, the mech now covering his lower faceplates. "Oh Primus! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to startle you like that!"

Hymnal groaned, feeling parts of their wings were tangled into Luna's legs. They quickly tried to sit up when they noticed they were smothering Luna with their chestplates.

"Oh, sorry Luna," they said, a soft blush of embarrassment on their face.

"It's ok, only more processor dama...dama…. Damage, to add to the list of…. Reasons why Luna needs a trip… tah tha nurse!" She responded back, voice becoming more garbled the longer it went on until she just slumped down on the floor, a light rumble leaving them.

"Oh dear," Hymnal said, trying to untangle their wings from Luna so they could stand and take Luna to a medic. They were able to after a few moments and a bit of assistance from Parixian, who'd finally recovered from his shock enough to heft the femme up into a firemechs carry. "Primus, she needs to stop over exerting herself… why can't she just use the fragging lift like the rest of us?!"

Hymnal did not respond to him, feeling no need. They followed him to the medical room, where he set Luna onto the berth.

A femme medic was quickly at their side, running a scan over the femme, worry etched on her features, even when she shoved Parixian out of the way.

"Is she going to be alright?" Hymnal asked worriedly. They stood out of the medic's way so they wouldn't be told to leave.

"She'll be fine, she just needs to rest for a while, I was worried that this whole debacle would put a strain on her, but from what I can tell, her actual collapse was caused by temporary shortage of energon in the processor, care to explain?" The teal green and red femme enquired, placing a sturdy servo on her hipplate.

Parixian looked away, trying to look like he knew nothing whilst Hymnal stepped forwards. "We were both startled by this mechs sudden appearance… and we fell in such a way that my chassis was putting pressure on her helm, I believe that was the cause." Hymnal couldn't help the dark blush on their faceplates. They had caused Luna to go unconscious with their own chest plates.

The medic gave Hymnal a long stare before sighing and shaking her helm. "Well, good news is this put little to no strain on her spark… in comparison to the stress she was already putting on herself… Primus above she really needs to control her stress levels."

Hymnal gave a soft frown and nodded to the medic, letting her know they understood. They sat in a small chair near the berthside, their legs crossing as they prepared to wait for Luna to wake up.

It took half a joor for the femme to come round, groaning as she rubbed her optics under her visor. "Note to self, when falling, always land on top… oh, hey Hymnal, would've thought you'd go back to the temple, what with there not being much for you to do… please tell me you haven't been sitting there this whole time? And on that note, one, how long was I out, two, any news on that fragger, and three, Cyler! Would you stop messing with my audio! You know that feels weird!" She exclaimed, batting the medics prodding servo away and flicking her audios down in irritation.

Hymnal gave a soft smile, "you have been out a little over half a jour, Luna. There has been no news yet" they said, "and yes, I stayed here while you were out."

Luna shot the Priest a look before pushing herself upright, batting away the femme medic's servos once again. "No, touchy, I can walk on my own… I'm pretty much used to walking on stilts as the norm anyway." She huffed, placing both pedes on the ground and pushing herself upright. "See? I, can, walk." She declared, before striding over to Hymnal. "I'm going to go check in with the Enforcer HQ, then get something to fill my tanks, you need anything?"

"Just to be directed to the refinery for these" they said, pulling out the pouch of crystals. "I should get these liquidized as quickly as possible."

Luna chuckled, rubbing the back of her helm. "A refinery? Now that's something we don't have I'm afraid… kinda a fire hazard."

"But you said you had a processing machine?" Hymnal asked.

"Yeah, we have a processor at the bar, but everything is shipped in already refined and ready to use." She tried to explain, before the discussion could go any further, Orion walked up to them.

"Err, Mrs Luna? If I could continue with what I was trying to say, you know, before you kicked me in the face, I'd like to offer a suggestion for our next course of action, if I may?"

He looked at her tentatively, his frame tense. Luna raised her optical brow before nodding for him to continue, causing him to relax a bit.

"I was thinking," he started, "That I'd go and talk to Megatronus and convince him to bring the data back to us, so we are not forced to harm him."

Luna turned her helm to shoot Hymnal a look, before turning back to him with a look of utmost concern. "Orion, you can't be suggesting that? Or am I hallucinating… no, I'm not hallucinating… ok, are you insane?! He might offline you!" She exclaimed. "He's been placed on the top of the Enforcers target list! Did you know that he was already under Enforcer watch before then?! Orion, you are one of my Data Clerks, one I have no intention of replacing." She declared.

Orion shuffled back, averting his optics from the visor of the hybrid femme. "No, I was aware of that, but, let me do this ma'am! I know all of his favourite spots the Enforcers can't get access to! I know that sounds bad, but if I go now, there's the chance I'll be able to find him. The longer we wait however, the lower chance we have of finding him, and getting that data back before irreparable harm is done that no amount of Enforcers can fix." He declared, a new determination in his optics and pose as he stood firm on his opinion.

There were a few moments of silence in the corridor they now stood in. The silence finally broken by Hymnal after a quick glance at the still internally debating femme.

"This may be our only option." they chimed in, drawing the gaze of everyone. "If what Data Clerk Orion is true, he may be our best and only option of recovering such sensitive information."

Luna jerked her helm round to stare at the Priest, her gaze turning scrutinous as they diverted their optics back to the information trailing down her visor at a more languid pace. "... You have me there Hymnal, very well, I'll run it by Alpha and see if he gives you clearance, is that Enforcer Captain still present?" She enquired Orion. "He should be able to at least get you an escort and back up incase this all goes to pit, and if we do this, I want you to keep your com channels open, understood?" She pressed.

Orion quickly nodded his helm at a fervent pace. "Yes ma'am! I let you down once, I won't do it again!"

OoOoOoOoOoO

"He wants WHAT?" Luna yelled out as Orion returned from his trip with Megatronus' terms.

"A meeting with the Council, then he'll hand back the data." Orion said again, looking at Luna nervously.

The hybrid femmes response was a simple one, bang the data pad she'd been holding into her faceplates and letting off a groan. "Perfect! Just perfect!" She declared, before throwing her helm back and yelling to all present. "Anyone here damn well lucky enough to be in the good graces of the council? Cause I know I sure as the pit ain't! Hymnal! Look at me! I'm using improper grammar I'm so stressed right now! I need to take a moment…" She huffed, rubbing at her chassis to try and calm herself down.

Hymnal, who had somehow remained calm during all of this, placed a servo on Luna's shoulder.

"I can speak with the Council. Since I am head Priest, they will listen." They said in an even voice. "However." they continued, "Giving in to Megatronus' demands may prove to be the wrong decision. He may plan to assassinate any of the members, or innocent passer by's to get his point across. He is a driven mech, and one we must be cautious of." Their facial expression did not change throughout their little speech. The only indication of emotion was a twitch in their wings.

Luna shot the Priest a look for a moment, before letting off a sigh and looking back to her data pad, digits already flying across the screen. "Already planning a meeting, now just need them to clear it, validate it, call in every guard they have… oh and arm the entire the Council Hall security system… Ok… even I'm not that paranoid."

Luna looked back up from her data pad to see Hymnal silently pointing at the still engaged security walls. "Ok, maybe I'm a paranoid android, but this is a fully justified measure under protocol." She tried to justify.

Hymnal let off a slight chuckle that only Luna's heightened hearing caught.

"It is alright Luna, I know what you mean. How long will it take for this to all begin?" Hymnal asked. "I must leave now to consult the Council."

Luna turned back to her Data pad. "Well due to the lockdown, you're fastest method is by flight, I've just sent an alert to the Enforcers you're exempt from suspicion, good luck with your travels."

Hymnal gave a short nod before turning to leave.

OoOoOoOoOoO

"... In the beginning, I had no name. None of us did. We spoke to each other, down in the mines and the smelters, by electronic signature. We indicated each other by function. We assigned each other nicknames. I was D-16, named for the sector of the mine where i conducted demolition operations. And then I saw my first match in the gladiator pits."

Hymnal's lips pressed into a thin line. The Priest stood off in a doorway behind the Council's podiums, out of sight. They were ordered to return to the Temple, but had refused, wishing to see the infamous meeting between the gladiator Megatronus and Iacon's high council. Their meeting with the Council several cycles earlier had not gone well, not that they were surprised. The old mechs reeked of impurities; greed and anger pungent in their fields like a bad aroma. Hymnal's sensitive electromagnetic field made it near impossible to stand near such volatile mechs and not twitch.

"That is where I first learned how life was for the lower castes that none of you ever take a nanoklik to consider. Each Cybertronian in that balcony has seen more Cybertronians die himself than the total of you in the rest of the gallery. Our lives are worthless!" Megatronus's voice was like thunder, able to shake into the spark of every mech and femme within the hall.

The lower caste mechs and femmes, who were all crammed into the upper balcony, roared along with their leader. A tap of one Council member's gavel quieted them down.

"Until… Until we decided we had worth. We, the lower castes. We, the bots who die in subsurface mills and factories creating all of the things that you up here take for granted. We learned that we were individuals by facing off against each other in the gladiator pits in Slaughter City and Kaon, and how did we know we were individuals?" there was a pause "We knew we were individuals because as we killed our opponents in the ring, we saw in their deaths the realization that they were individuals. And so we knew we were, too. In killing, we understood life. In being the most disposable of commodities - a gladiator, whose remains are thrown into a junkpile to be picked over and scavenged, the healthy pieces sold off to brokers in Iacon and Crystal City - in being disposable, we discovered that we had value. Someone should pay us for what we did. Someone would cheer when we killed, and roar in anger when we died."

Luna stepped up to Hymnal's side, the hybrid femme having only then arrived from the Hall of Records. "This. does not look good." She mumbled, pointed audios drooping as she ducked back slightly behind Hymnal. "So, so many Cybertronians…."

"He makes a fair point." Hymnal said softly, their voice barely a whisper.

"So if our lives had worth - even to other just as worthless as we were - then we had the right to names. And that is how the sequence of events started that led to me being here before you today. My friend Orion Pax, I thank you for helping our cause gain this platform; and to the High Council, I express my thanks for your time and attention." Megatronus finished and fell silent.

"The data pad!" Luna had called out before she even realised what she was doing. "We've kept our side of the bargain! Now return what you have stolen!"

Hymnal placed a servo on Luna's shoulder as everyone looked to them, the Council members looking angrily at Hymnal. Hymnal ignored them and gave Luna a long look. Luna glanced at them for a moment before narrowing her optics back at the gladiator from behind her visor. "Where is the data!?"

"Already returned to the Hall of Records," Megatronus said easily.

"W-wh… how?!" Before she could go further her HUD pings, alerting her that the data pad had been in fact returned, and the Hall's security returned to standby mode. "You crafty... I'm done here then… Until next we meet Hymnal, it was good seeing you in the frame for a change." With that, she strides away, trying her hardest to ignore all the stares piercing her back strut.

Hymnal's wings flared out a bit from where they had been pinned to their back at some of the stares following Luna, not liking the look in some of the mech's optics.

Luna refused to look back until she was long out of sight, letting off a shuddering vent as she grasped at her flat chassis. "How I am not offline from that, shall remain a mystery…"

Hymnal internally relaxed when the Council members began debating with Orion and Megatronus, drawing everyone's attention back to the topic at hand.

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

The meeting ended badly, with an angry, riled up crowd, an angry Megatronus, a third of the Council members leaving with him, and leavin a sad, shocked Orion Pax… no… Optimus Prime,staring at the fountain in the Hall of Record's main lobby. "War… I've potentially started a war…"

Luna glanced to Hymnal. "No, I set this whole thing in motion, had I spotted him taking the data pad, he would never of had the leverage to hold that meeting."

"Both of you should stop blaming yourselves because self pity gets us nowhere" Hymnal said with a surprising amount of sternness. "Megatronus… Megatron has High Council members on his side now, and promises to overthrow Cybertron's Governing system by force if they don't comply. There has been bombings happening around Iacon since before the meeting, and even though he refuses his involvement, Megatron is the obvious instigator. Civilians are dying, a war has been going on for vorns now, we just refused to acknowledge it."

"Well it's here now… out in the open… Primus we're all going to the Pits…" Luna practically deflated, slumping down against the side of the fountain. "War… I… I… it's too dangerous… No, I can't let my flight instincts take in… none of us can…" She snapped, pushing herself back up. "I know my condition will mean I can't enlist, so I'll help from the sidelines Ori….. Optimus Prime…" She correct herself, it was so strange, her beta, now beyond that of the rank of an alpha, her wilder coding was screeching that it wasn't right, but the other half of her fully accepted it. "If you'll excuse me though, I need to go clear my helm." With that she strode off towards the lifts up to the upper levels, not even trusting her own shaking double jointed legs to get her up where she wished to be.

Hymnal watched her go, a frown on their face. They turned and looked towards the Prime, giving him a long look.

"As a Priest of Primus, I can only help you if you get the Matrix." they informed, "I cannot follow just any bot the Council declares a Prime into war."

Optimus just nodded. "I… understand, I did not expect you to anyway, could you, go keep Luna company? She seems most at ease with you besides that of Alpha Trion, but he is in discussion with the remaining members of the council at present. I believe her outburst at the hall has thrown her off kilter."

Hymnal said nothing, only nodded and walked off to find Luna.

Hymnal found Luna after only a few breems of searching, their first notion being to check areas where the Hybrid femme may of gone to calm herself. It had been luck when they had spotted Luna on one of the Hall's external balconies, the returned data pad in servos, and her optics darting across the screen in a way that would of made Hymnal dizzy if they would have tried to follow.

"Luna," they called in an even voice, walking up to her. They moved next to her, placing a servo on her arm and making her look at them. "Something seems to be troubling you, was the data pad damaged?"

Luna shook her helm, audios flapping with the motion. "No… No, not even a single chip on the chrome finish, I'm trying to find signs of tampering, Red Band data pads are designed to be impossible to download information off…. But somebot will always find away…. Around…. I knew it… Primus I'm glad I didn't let this thing touch the others! I have to alert Alpha!" She jolted, pulling herself away to prepare a quick dash to the closest communication hub. "Screw the council, he has to know about this!"

Hymnal let out a small huff, before schooling their features. They opted to follow behind, but at a much slower pace. "Why your sudden hurry?"

Luna skidded to a stop at their words, looking back over her shouldplate and shaking the tablet around like a loon. "There's a virus! Someone planted a type of Gilma Virus on it, yes I know it's a weird name, but Primus is it a nasty one, if this thing had just been 'put back' as said, it would have latched onto all those around it and had transmitted all of the data on those to an outside source! This whole thing, that's why Megatronus only stole one data pad, this virus would've given him access to all of them! Well tough luck for that glitch!" She exclaimed, continuing to wave the data pad around. "I've got to alert Alpha! Now that this attempt has failed, there will be more!"

Hymnal nodded "Go on then, I plan on returning to the Temple soon." they said, their wings shifting.

Luna deflated slightly at the news. "Oh…. Ok…. Well I guess you have your duties too… hug?" She enquired, opening her arms out. "Surely the High Priest of Primus is allowed to give a mere lowly hybrid a farewell embrace no?"

A smile curled at the edges of Hymnal's lips as they allowed a moment of emotion to show as they gave their friend a long hug. Their wings came around to wrap around the both of them for a moment.

"I shall see you soon, Luna" they said into Luna's audio.

"If I don't offline from a spark attack first…. With this war nonsense brewing and all…" She patted them on the shoulderplate with her free servo. "You got those Primus enriched crystals on yah? Just remembered you said you were gonna bring some?"

"Ah, yes" Hymnal hummed, pulling back a bit so they could reach into a special subspace to pull out a bundle of enriched crystals, each wrapped in its own mesh cloth to prevent any accidents. They handed over the crystals, "Be sure to get these processed as soon as possible."

Luna nodded in confirmation, holding the mesh cloth close to her chassis. "Don't worry, you know I'm not one for procrastination…. Unless it's a medical exam that is." She joked.

Hymnal chuckled, "well then, I'll just have to suffocate you again with my chassis to get you in there more often," they joked back.

Luna felt her faceplates turn a blue very similar to her secondary colour. "T-T-T-That won't be necessary!" She exclaimed, waving her three digit servos in front of her, barely keeping the data pad and wrapped crystal in her grasp.

A sly smirk crept onto the side of Hymnal's lips, their wings flaring out behind them in a very flirty, very UN-priestley way to tease the femme.

Luna felt a sliver of fear drop through her. "Meep."

The smirk dropped off Hymnal's face, going back to their normal stoic look, and their wings settled back down. "My apologies" they said evenly, after hearing Luna's response.

Luna shook her helm. "No, no, it's ok, you just… threw me off guard there, didn't think you could be all flirty like that Oh, and don't worry, I won't tell a sod about a certain Priest's cheekier side~" Luna practically purred the last part, jokingly bouncing her audios as she tilted her helm to the side and rocked forwards slightly.

Hymnal's stoic look softened a bit as they smiled. "I doubt a spark would believe you otherwise. I'm not well known for showing any form of emotion."

Luna pondered this, or at least looked to before she shrugged. "Fair point, then again, I did over hear once that the council wanted to throw me in a 'safe place' Which involved padded walls and stasis cuffs, suddenly saying you have a flirty side may not bode well for others view of my sanity."

"I'd like to see them try and get you in there, Luna. Your peds would go so far up their afts they'd taste the ground you've walked on." Hymnal huffed before muttering, "then we'd see how far I can shove one of my magnets down their throats."

Luna chuckled. "One, I don't think very far if my hoof is already jammed up there, and two, that's if they can even catch me, you likely won't find a fem as slippery as me even if you tried…. Being a hybrid has some up sides." She added, moving the crystals to her other servo so her free one could run down the layer of metallic nano fibres which covered her protoform and which could be clearly seen by her limited armour.

The Priest smiled, "You could always stay with me in the Temple if they ever did. Aristocrats are not allowed within the inner temple."

The hybrid just chuckled. "I appreciate the offer, but only if you're willing to be overrun with data pads, you know I could never leave my beloved information behind!"

"There are many unused corridors in the depth of Cybertron, we can find a suitable room for storage." Hymnal thought for a moment before speaking again, "with this coming catastrophe, I'd deem it wise to start storing data in the Temple; however, the general public will grow restless if they found out we were preparing for war, even if it's worst case scenario. What is left of the Council is still trying to divert Megatron away from war, if we start packing up, the public might panic."

Luna nodded as Hymnal spoke, running her free servo along her audio as she contemplated. "If war is declared, I'll send you copies of every data pad in the Hall then join you, guess that means I'll be your new temple mate, just, don't expect me to study the religious texts, ok? It's not really my thing I'll admit." She declared, rubbing the back of her helm in embarrassment.

"It's not my Primus-given duty to force religion on anyone," Hymnal said, "so you don't have to worry."

Luna waved them off good naturedly. "I know, I know, now, get going Hymnal, I've kept you here long enough. With all the crazy scrap that's been happening in the last… single orn… Primus it feels like way too much has happened this orn for it all to fit!" She exclaimed. "Well, I have to alert Alpha about this virus, safe travel to the temple Hymnal! And don't get hurt ok?! It'll all be going to Pits out there soon enough!" She called, before sprinting away down the corridor, disappearing from view behind a wall, yet her heavy pede falls were still easily heard for a good duration until even they were cut off by the distance.

Hymnal stood for a moment to think before turning and walking out of the Hall and back to their temple.

 **(AN: (Silver) woo the War kicks off in style**

 **(Moon): Reminds me of a domino effect**

 **(Silver): yeah, Luna is like the epitome of Murphy's law**

 **(Moon): Very true, the Universe seems to have a bone to pick with her, wonder why?**

 **(Silver): not a clue, lol**

 **(Moon): Or we have plans~**

 **Bigpinkstudios:** (silver) i like your idea :3 if you find me on DA feel free to note me X3

 **Till all are one!**


	4. Chapter 4: The Calm Has Ended

**Chapter four: The calm has ended**

Within orns, Cybertron was in chaos. Bombs were being dropped on major cities, all public places such as amusement parks and gardens were closed and shut down.

The Council, or really what was left of it, declared that all able bodied Cybertronians, not 'corrupted' by the Decepticons propaganda where to enlist into a force declared the 'Autobots'.

To Luna, the dread building in her with every new piece of news, just seemed to grow. "It's getting out of servo." She mumbled, slumped over on the edge of her berth, data pad lying at her side still showing the latest updates, and none were anything close to positive.

Thankfully, the Hall had remained relatively unscathed during the chaos. Iacon was a well guarded, well fortified city, and the Decepticons were no where near ready to battle the Autobot's on their home turf. The rebellion had remained near the outskirts of the city, the lonely Autobot outposts had been destroyed multiple times, and other cities, such as Kaon and Tarn had already been overtaken by the Decepticons completely.

The leading Autobots had been fretting over the city of Vos recently, their current Wing Lord, Starscream, was well known for his distaste of Iacon and its leaders. The Autobots knew that if he joined the Decepticons, the rest of his city would follow, giving the Decepticons a deadly aerial advantage. This had been a constant helm ache for the residents of the Hall, since Optimus frequently stopped by to ask his former mentor for advice.

"Gah, it's all going to Pits!" Luna exclaimed, throwing herself back onto the berth.

Alpha Trion hadn't even needed to tell her she wasn't to fight, she'd long since given up any hopes of helping with this cause.

Her only major task with helping the war effort, was collecting any and all reports, filing, documenting, and then sending them off to the Council and Optimus, sometimes Prowl, seeing as the mech had been made SIC of the Autobots.

Her audio twitched, causing the blue cuff which hung off it to bounce as she giggled.

There was one positive, Prowls sneak peek at how she dealt with bots had left the poor mech terrified of her.

Honestly, she doubted it was warranted, she had a harsh kick, everything else about her put her at an extreme disadvantage.

But, like all gossip, it had somehow become a rumour through the Autobot ranks, that she was some sort of highly trained one shot killer they were holding back due to 'unstable tendencies to lash out'.

The news that Prowl had witnessed her kick Orion, now Optimus, in the faceplates, sending the poor mech flying no less, probably added to that.

It was a fun little tit bit she'd gotten a few jours prior.

She didn't feel like shattering conceptions just yet, wanting to tell Hymnal first during their next arranged call.

The Temple had gotten a lot busier with Mechs, Fems and Younglings alike going there to pray for the safety of their friends and loved ones.

That thought sobered the hybrid fem, reminding her of the true nature of this war.

It was bad, the intensity was unlike anything in the records.

And all of her calculations had been less than promising. Such a major divide in their race had been ripped apart, and it threatened to just continue to grow until nothing was left.

Then again, this was mostly because she'd done nothing but calculate worst case scenarios so far.

Everything from the moon's being experimental weapons and crashing into the planet, causing a global catastrophe, to the unsettling possibilities that data pad contained.

It had been in the servos of Megatron.

And under even closer scrutiny of the data, she'd found that fragments, albeit small, had been copied, and all of them were from one specific chapter.

Plagues.

It seemed that the further she looked into any part of this mess, the more and more she felt like they'd all end up offline eventually.

One of the training dummies she used had already been reduced to a pile of metal brackets and tin wire stuffing.

That only helped so much with her stress levels.

By some miracle, her internal panic seemed to of eaten up more time than expected, as a ping from her desk alerted her to an incoming call.

She very nearly crashed onto her desk she moved so fast to answer, even Prowl would be a welcome distraction, despite his weary nature around her, now that the shock had worn off.

Thankfully, Primus decided to smile on her and she was greeted with the view of her best friend. "Hymnal! Primus I'm so glad to see you! I'm halfway to a panic attack and nothing's happened in three cycles! I didn't even know I could get paranoia this bad!" As if on cue she glanced to the side and caught something in her peripheral, jolting her helm round she realised it was only one of her organic plants rustling in the breeze of the open glass balcony doors on the other side of her multipurpose room. "Primus this in getting ridiculous." Her helm connected with her desk a moment later. "Ugh… I'm too fragging tense for this slag."

"The war is getting bad, Luna. I suggest you move to the inner Temple soon. I have no doubt that Megatron and his Decepticons have their optics on Iacon and the Hall." they said worriedly, their wings shifting in the background.

"I fully hear you there Hymnal, I've already discussed it with Alpha, he feels better with me staying here, with the Halls defenses and all, but, he understands my reasoning, despite it taking four joors to get all my points across, it was an interesting meeting, so I've already began packing… I just… this is the only home I've ever known… and I'm scared." She admitted, covering her helm with her servos as her audios drooped down. "Every scenario I've run, ends in us all ending up offline on the ground with our world plunged into darkness, I've done the math and none of it is good."

"We must have faith, if not in Primus then in each other. We will protect each other," Hymnal said softly.

Luna lifted her helm back up and sighed. "I know, I know, but it's hard for me… facts is all I've know, and I know these ones aren't…. I just heard something…" Her audios had swiveled round, the 'clink' of metal on metal, and it had come from the corridor, after that no sound, but Luna was in no way fooled, quickly loading up the security camera's vid-feed and loading it onto her visor.

What the cameras revealed, caused the previous pool of dread to become more like the sea of rust itself.

The hunters.

"Hymnal… I think I'm about to die..." How had they made it all the way to her floor without being detected?!

"What?!" Hymnal asked in surprise and fear.

"They're here… the hunters… and they're toting a certain purple logo…" She looked over to the open doors of the balcony, it was her only chance, but the distance between her current position put her at risk. "Ok, make that nineteen percent chance of survival, the rest…. Made into a rug." She didn't even cut the call, she could hear them getting close, and so, she threw herself over the back of her chair, and bolted.

A shout came from the doorway, and a moment later, everything went to Pits, one managing to make its mark on her upper arm, cutting through the exposed protoform there.

She barely had time to let out a pained grunt before she made it to the balcony, immediately turning off her pain receptors to try and focus, the gunfire causing the glass around her to shatter as she scrambled over the ledge, not even acknowledging the massive drop to the street level far below until she forced herself to twist and relax, her hooves making impact first and causing the metal beneath her to crack, all whilst a hail of shots rained down towards her, causing panic to quickly erupt and over take the packed street.

Not waiting to give herself time to recover, Luna bolted, clutching her throbbing arm as she ducked into an alley, for once wholly grateful of her small stature.

Her spark was racing, crackling and thrashing in her spark chamber at a dangerous rate.

She gave herself a few moments to try and calm down, any more exertion and she'd collapse, and she knew all too well what that could potentially lead to.

Spark moderately in check, she bolted down the alley way, ducking past two mechs who shouted after her.

Hopefully the hunters would be caught, before they could catch her.

All the while, Hymnal was in an angry panic.

Not that they could show that around the other priests.

Hymnal moved quickly to reach the temple entrance after Luna disappeared from the camera view and shots were heard. They cut off the connection to the video before moving to the lift and, instead of taking it up, flew right up the shaft. The magnets in their frame held them in the air as they pushed themselves up the lift shaft as fast as possible, their spark fluttering in panic.

They didn't want to consider the prospect that Luna could already be dead, refusing to think about it, not ready to consider it. The thought filled them with a burning feeling right in the core of their being and made their tanks roll. Hymnal shook their helm, schooling their worried expression into a stern look.

They reached the top and flew into the main temple, waving some of the few guards the temple had left over as they landed.

"Yes, Head Priest Hymnal?" one asked, causing Hymnal to focus on them.

"There is a femme in trouble who has been granted protection from Primus," they informed, "she is currently in danger and needs assistance." the guards looked worriedly between themselves at the thought of a fight, causing Hymnal to frown in disapproval.

"Um, Head Priest? Is she being pursued by Decepticons? If so, I doubt there's anything but a bullet ridden frame left." one of the younger guards pipped in, shifting where he stood. Hymnal glared and the guards looked nervous, their peds seeming to plant themselves in the floor.

Hymnal repressed a scoff, angry at the mechs cowardness. They leaned forward and grabbed one of the swords from one of the shifty mechs, giving them all an accusing look before stalking out of the Temple. Hymnal would go with or without them.

As soon as they got out the door they took off running in the direction of the Hall. The roads were clear, since most of the Iacon population moved to the other side of the city where the walls around them were thicker. This had left half of Iacon vacant and easy to access by the Decepticons. They turned their audio receptors up to the max, intensely listening for anything to hint at Luna's whereabouts, or of the Decepticons they'd slice to pieces if they found out she was dead.

There was a faint sound of blaster fire coming from just west of the Hall (the Temple was to the North), and Hymnal moved as fast as they could to the sound, jumping over abandoned stalls and smaller vehicles used for ground transport.

The sounds were getting louder and Hymnal turned their audios back to normal when they saw the lights of the blaster rounds in the distance. With a pull of the magnets within their frame, they pulled themselves to the roof of a small building for a better vantage point.

They caught a glance of movement, then a small frame bolting away from a group of large mechs. Hymnal's wings flared when they noticed it was Luna. This was just before she ducked and crammed herself between two buildings, her thin frame for once being her saving grace as she held stock still as the large weapon toting mechs rushed right past, having missed her quick slip out of sight.

Hymnal breathed a sigh of relief, moving quietly over to the roof of one of the buildings Luna was hiding between. Hymnal tapped on the side of the building to get Luna's attention.

The terrified fems reaction was a startled squeak and pressing herself even further into the gap, causing a scraping sound of metal on metal.

"Shhh Luna!" Hymnal whispered from above.

A cluster of panicked warbles and chirps were her only response other than the rattling of her plates, green optics wide and gripped by panic.

"Here, grab ahold" they whispered, moving down one of their wing pillars.

Green optics latched onto the familiar appendage, in the cramped space only her right arm could grab hold, the three digits wrapping tight around in a vice like grip. Hymnal slowly pulled the wing pillar up, their servos grabbing ahold of Luna's servos when she was within reach.

Once Luna had stumbled up onto the roof, their frame collapsed against theirs, the noises made still unintelligible as she clutched on for dear life, frame shaking and a multitude of places, mostly on her back, where trickling energon from bullet wounds, some even in the seams of her legs, causing them to be at the point of near collapse.

"I… I don't…. Wanna offline…" She got out, before losing all strength and slumping against them.

"You won't, Luna. I won't let you." Hymnal swore, pulling her into their arms and standing up before taking off towards the Temple. They moved as quickly as they could, pushing themselves to the limit with their frame and magnets to get over roofs and over intersections without being spotted. It was a breem before they reached the Temple, dashing inside and calling for a medic to be hailed.

It took a breem or two at most before the medic arrived, but froze at the sight of the patient. "What is she?!" The mech exclaimed, kneeling to examine the soft nano fibres which covered her protoform.

Hymnal almost hissed. "Cybertronian, now get to work." they snapped at the medic.

"No, this is the fem that's part Ion deer? Correct? If she is, I can't operate until she's conscious, if I did anything now she could go into a spark relapse and extinguish herself." He snapped back.

"You can at least plug up the holes before she bleeds to death." Hymnal said.

"That I can do." He acknowledged albeit a bit snappish. With that he drew a moderate pile of mesh bandages from his subspace, quickly wrapping the injuries on her upper half, when reached for the damaged joints of her pedes however, he only just managed to keep his helm when her hoof lashed out and a startled screech left the now very awake hybrid fem.

"Luna! It is ok, you are safe," Hymnal said to the distressed femme, cradling her in their lap, petting the hiked up audios in hopes of quelling their friends terror.

It took a few breems of insistent warbling chirps and a few more lash outs from her damaged pedes before she stilled, optics wide and darting in every which direction, from behind her cracked visor, which had made contact with a mechs arm when she was fleeing at high speed. Hymnal continued to pet her until long after they stopped lashing out and as the medic began to fix her up. Containing the odd wince, Luna's claws gripped that bit tighter when another bullet was carefully removed, her pain receptors were down, but she could still make out every movement within her as the medic worked to pry the pieces from her protoform.

That was when a commotion came from outside, shouts and heavy pede steps coming towards them.

Luna was thrashing to right herself not an astrosecond later. A panicked cry leaving her as she scrambled against Hymnal's quick hold, trying to keep her from making her wounds worse than they already were.

Hymnal was forced to pin Luna to their chassis to keep them from harming themselves further, their arms tightly around her arms, pinning them to her torso. They moved quickly, hiding Luna behind a wall in a hidden compartment in a backroom. They whispered for Luna to keep quiet and that they would take care of things, giving Luna only enough time to give them a scared trembling nod. Hymnal turned and left the backroom, returning to the front where the commotion was still happening.

It was four of the hunters, including the femme who had first singled Luna out, and now had her rifle pointed directly at Hymnal. "Where's the freak. Tell us now, and we'll only take those pretty wings of yours." She snarled, raising the scope to her murderous purple optic.

Hymnal had schooled their face into a look of cool indifference.

"This is the house of Primus, take your ill-will elsewhere," they said cooly. The magnets in their frame pulsed, letting Hymnal feel the metal in the walls. They'd be unhappy to damage the walls of the Temple, but better that than let these hunters take Luna for a rug, they thought to themselves.

"Not until we get the Ion deer, a beast like that'll fetch a high price, pet or pelt." One of the mechs responded, priming his own weapon.

This made Hymnal angry, their wings twitching as they leveled a glare at the hunters.

"The one you seek is no longer here, she ran when she heard you approaching," they lied, "now leave."

"Heh, scanners say otherwise, the energon traces only come in, and that pool in the middle suggests she's not moving on her own now the shocks kicked in, I should know, I got the most shots on her. "Another larger mech practically purred, puffing up his armour whilst patting the chain gun at his side. "Everybot and their carrier knows that once an Ion deer goes into shock, they lose all ability to stand, let alone flee from us~ Now stand down, we wouldn't want a pretty face like yours damaged, doll~"

A brief flash of disgust was shown on Hymnal's face before leaving. Their stance widened into a defensive one, their wings flaring out to their full length, almost brushing the pillars that held the Temple ceilings up.

"You will be leaving," they said sternly, "There will be no war in the Temple of Primus, not while I still function. You will leave now, empty servoed."

The femme snarled. "Not without the Ion deer, that pelt alone would set us for our life cycles, stop being so selfish and hand the beast over! Before I put a round between your optics." She warned, loading a round and lining her sight with the aforementioned spot. "The Ion deer, now, if you will."

"Selfish?" Hymnal almost yells, "You are attempting to kill a living, breathing, SENTIENT being for credits! That is the epitome of selfishness, you hollow sparked creation-of-a-" a servo on Hymnal's arm kept them from continuing with their very un-Priestly words. A three digit servo.

Luna was barely holding herself up as she glared at them. "Leave them alone, if you're so willing in this, then try and shoot me!" She shouted, clutching the gem attached to her neck, a Red flash streaking across both green optics for a brief moment.

Hymnal took ahold of Luna's arm and gently pushed her behind them.

"Please stay there, Luna." they pleadingly whispered over their private comm. "I'm going to barricade the doors, but we need a way to push them out."

Luna smirked. "I have just the solution." They responded, before with a sudden cry out, a thick mass of crackling red energy exploded outwards between them and the hunters, the force slamming the four back. "Now!" She shouted, grunting as the four began firing off at the wall of red energy which had rocketed out of the gem mere moments before.

Hymnal threw out their arms, activating every magnet in their frame to hold them down and pull the thick metal sheets from the walls and slam them down in front of the doors of the Temple. They added layers and layers of walling to the doors, creating a thick barricade between the Temple and the outside world.

Luna let off an exhausted sigh. "That'll only keep them out so long, alert the Enfor...cers..." She got out, before her frame keeled over and crashed to the ground in stasis.

Hymnal let out a tired sigh, sitting on the ground next to Luna and pulling her helm into their lap.

"If only I could"

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

It had been vorns. Vorns that they had been based in the Temple. They lived off of the energon that Hymnal was able to retrieve from the inner Temple, but they rationed strictly.

They were all able to leave when they wanted through a hidden backdoor that could be accessed through a backroom. They only left when they needed to; they left for updates on the worsening war, news from Alpha Trion, and for any resources they didn't have themselves. They still had a medic, five guards, ten priests, and Hymnal and Luna, making 18 in all.

It hadn't been easy, but they managed, the lowest levels becoming Luna's home since her move in, and her recovery from the multitude of bullet wounds. Luna rarely spent a moment still, constantly moving and tinkering, updating the ancient systems which filled the temple and drove her balmy with their slowness.

Hymnal attempted to make the Temple as comfortable as possible, pulling the metal walls in unused rooms to make furniture like berths, even though it made them feel bad for destroying the Temple. Though, Hymnal was sure Primus would forgive them for doing what was necessary for their long stay, and the broken screens from the odd time one had fritzed out and Luna had ended up smashing them, fist or hoof, but the later often left a crater to boot.

Currently, Hymnal was in the deepest parts of the Temple, the Well where Primus's spark was located. They stared sadly at the core of Cybertron, which was dim and sickly colored. The drain of Cybertron's resources while the war went on sickened the planet, and Primus's spark was slowly dying. This brought a turmoil to Hymnal, who couldn't bare to see the spark of the god they worshiped slowly diminishing. Their core programing was on the fritz, but they contained it to the best of their abilities.

The familiar clacking of hoved pedes alerted them to Luna's approach. "We have to get the word out about this, we can't just sit by and watch this happen Hymnal, if we lose Primus, we lose Cybertron." Luna stated, standing in the doorway, not daring to cross the threshold, it was one of the few places she never stepped, out of respect for their creator. "The same can be said for you, you need to have something in your tanks and I know you haven't been taking any of your rations, Temba won't shut up about it, and you know how he gets, please at least do it so the guards don't end up trying to kill him again!" Luna added, sounding quite desperate by the end as she gestured with both servos down the corridor which lead up to the main area those trapped within the temple resided, they weren't trapped, but they preferred to stay out of the war, and unfortunately, they were caught in the middle in their little sanctuary.

"I am aware of the severeness of this situation, Luna; however, I doubt anyone on the surface with halt their fighting, whether or not they know." Hymnal said quietly, not turning from their spot looking at Primus's spark.

Luna sighed. "Hymnal, I understand where you're coming from, he's the creator… bots should care more, but, I meant get word out, as in, try and give at least some of the less loyal bots to abandon planet? Weaken the impact to Primus? I… don't know anymore… every test, every theory I've run, and none of them are coming up with anything remotely helpful… we've past the point of no-return…" She admitted, turning her gaze away and to the wall at her side, digits clenching at her hips. "Even with everything I know… I can do nothing to help… I'm sorry… but please, don't let your own survival become in jeopardy by refusing to fuel yourself!"

Hymnal was quiet for a few moments, "I wish to be alone, please." they said softly, but then turned their helm a bit to look at Luna, "but I will be sure to refuel once I have collected my thoughts."

Luna just gave a nod before turning and making her way back down the corridor, knowing all too well there was no point trying to argue with them.

It took only a few breems to find herself back up in the make-shift rec-room. "How's Hymnal?" Temba asked, the dark red and soft yellow armoured mech asked, looking up from his paint chipped servo, where his scanner pinged every so often, trained down towards the Well.

Luna shook her helm. "Still distraught, they said they'll refuel but we all know the chance over all of that happening being lower than thirty percent.

One of the guards, Copperlock, patted the free spot on the bench he was perched on, the senior of the guards. "C'mon kid, yah shaking." The gruff mech declared.

Luna nodded and sat where he had gestured, used to how he dwarfed her. "I'm just… I guess I finally realised how useless I am… all the knowledge of the Hall, and I can't do scrap! I feel like I'm either making some fatal error, or losing my processor and so skipping vital details!" She exclaimed, reaching up with a servo and clasping at the blue cable around her neck and tugging, it had become something of a calming mechanism, reminding her that she still had a helm attached to her neck.

Temba frowned and nodded to the others, they were all feeling the effects of being in the same place for so long, with only ever bad news reaching them, then there was the fact it was becoming too dangerous for them to leave, at least for long, two of the priests had already been offed by Decepticon Assassins when they had left a few orns prior and gotten distracted by something. Ever since the second Priest was killed, their frame dropped on their doorstep, no one had left the Temple in fear of the assassins lurking outside.

One of the remaining priests, Evelia, rose and moved to sit opposite Copperlock. "Luna, do not dismay, eventually we will all make it through this troubling time, and in the process, become even greater than we were before."

Luna just snorted and rose to pace around the small circle the benches made. "For you, yes, me? First twitch I make, and they'll be shipping me off to any still standing asylum claiming I've gone mad! They were always out to make my life a fragging pit!" She practically roared at the end, kicking one of the empty cubes which lay in between two of the benches, sending it flying and shattering against the adjacent wall. "See! I'm volatile! They'll have me in stasis cuffs before I can even leave this damn temple!"

"Well, be thankful that all the prisons and asylums were destroyed by the Cons," one of the rougher guards grunted.

"Despite that, they'll build one just for me, made of shock absorbers so I can't kick my way out! … Sorry, I'm just… tense... " She mumbled the last part, moving to just sit on the ground and stare up at the intricate ceiling.

"Im sure the war-goers have bigger turbo-fish to fry than one femme with strong legs," the same guard said, taking a gulp of his ration.

"Ugh tell that to the council… how many of those fraggers are even still online?" Luna enquired.

"From the last update, Kerimax just got offed, so, that puts the total at… none."

"FRAG YEAH! Eat yah sparks out glitches!" Luna cheered, throwing herself back into a laying position. "Wait, that just fragging shows it! How could I have missed that in the update from Alpha? One answer, loosing my processor!" She laughed.

"Should be expecting a news update any cycle now from either the Autobots or Alpha Trion." Copperlock said. "And hopefully some metal shavings, I've been craving some titanium for orns now."

Temba huffed. "Don't count on it, haven't you noticed? They're sending us less and less each time… soon enough they won't be sending us anything." He growled, clenching his fist on the bench so hard it began groaning.

"The war is gettin' worse" the rougher guard, whose name was ShiftStick, grumbled. ShiftStick was the oldest mech within the Temple, par from Primus himself, but hadn't been working as a guard as long as Copperlock had. "Soon there won't be anywhere their foul stench hasn't permeated."

Evelia nodded. "The wars toxins have already polluted our creator, there is no place left it hasn't reached. Sooner or later… I understand I speak blasphemy when I say this, but we will have to leave the temple, potentially split up, and try and find a place to reside beyond Cybertron… Our home is dead… there is nothing left yet they still fight…"

"They'll burn up the place before they'll admit defeat," Copperlock said.

Luna hummed and went to respond, when a sound caught her audios."Hey Hymnal… feeling ok?"

"Wrong bot," another priest, Bluebird said, walking out of the passage. "But I walked past Hymnal in the hall, it seemed like they were heading towards their rooms."

Luna groaned and pushed herself upright. "Alright, looks like I'm gonna have to drag their sorry aft out here, don't follow you lot, it's better to have one casualty for Temba to yank at than all of us." She declared when they went to follow her, turning she strode towards the part of the temple which had become all of their quarters, soon enough coming to a stop outside of Hymnal's. "Hymnal? Bluebird said you were coming this way, what happened to refueling? C'mon, don't shut yourself away like this, you need to keep your strength up." She called, knowing the doors were about as soundproof as a datapad, they could thank Ironclad and his mate, another guard, Xeneria for that knowledge.

The door opened up, revealing Hymnal's quarters. Luna stepped through the threshold, looking around at the room that Hymnal never let anyone enter. Shelves lined the walls, all full to capacity with datapads and trinkets of all sorts. The room was dimly lit, most of the luminescence coming from several trinkets made from glowing energon crystals. The room was long and narrow, almost looking like a cut off hallway. At the far end of the room was a large berth big enough for Hymnal to sleep on with their wings. That was where Hymnal sat, their legs crossed and their servos in their lap as they looked at their digits like they were the most interesting things in the universe.

Luna stepped towards them, before going into a kneeling position her legs would allow, placing a servo on their shoulderplate. "Hymnal, you all right?" What was even the point of that question when it was obvious they weren't?

"No, but I will be," they said, looking up at Luna.

Luna stared at them from behind her visor before shaking her helm, reaching into their subspace they drew a half filled energon cube. "Here, I wasn't hungry anyway." It wasn't an out-right lie, her appetite had plummeted through the floor the last few vorns, something clearly shown and something Temba always got twitchy about. "Have this, then try and get some recharge ok? And don't worry, I'll… I'll keep watch of Primus for you whilst you recharge, from the door of course. Nothing will happen to him in the time it takes you to get some much needed rest." She declared, pushing the half drank cube into their servo. "Please, it's bad enough that we're having to decrease our rations as is, we have to make sure we don't waste or put off a drop, otherwise Temba will have all of our afts."

Hymnal was still for a moment before reaching over and gently taking the cube from Luna.

"Thank you." they said, holding the cube. Hymnal did not feel good, every part of them was screaming something was wrong as their base programing continued to glitch. Hymnal was made to serve Primus, that was why they were brought into being. Seeing him in this state and unable to do anything to help made every program within them glitch simultaneously.

Luna apparently picked up on their distress, moving to sit beside them, and after a bit of hesitation, reached out and pulled them into a hug. "We'll get through this… all of us, even the big guy himself, c'mon, he's made of some seriously tough stuff." Even as she said it, she felt her voice crack, hope for a good outcome was quickly slipping away.

Hymnal leaned into her, their optics closing as they curled up next to her.

Luna, out of an odd impulse she cursed her wilder side for, started this odd gurgling purr, leaning her helm down to nuzzle the side of their helm. "We'll get through this… even if I have to use my gem… we'll get through this…" The gem was a bit of a controversial subject, every time she used it, the moment the task set was done, she'd been knocked out cold from a sudden drop in energy levels. It was a two way system, the gem gave her its energy to control, for her own in return. Temba had, on multiple occastions, made it very clear that sudden, repeated drops in energy level could be detrimental to her health, but, at this point, what wasn't? So, she trained anyway, trying to build up stamina so that she could use the energy for longer, it was a long, arduous task, but, progress had been made, moderately.

Hymnal let out a soft sigh, relaxing into Luna's side and slipping into recharge.

Going to move, Luna realised that action wasn't going to be possible for a while, Hymnal's arms were wrapped tight around her middle, and their mass was quickly resulting in her weaker frame being pushed over onto the berth, now that said mass was no longer trying to hold themselves up.

And, just as her helm met the berth, putting her at quite the interesting, and mildly uncomfortable angle, her com-link pinged, that only possible due to the receiver dish installed on the side of the temple and cable chained down to the lower temple levels.

" _Luna? It's Alpha Trion, I'm sending an escort to take you, Hymnal, and those others within the temple to the Hall, they'll be waiting for you early next cycle."_ Before she could respond the call ended, leaving her to lay there, partially trapped under her best friend, on their berth, with her tanks choosing that moment to kick her lack of appetite out for a bit.

"Fraggit… the Universe just hates me…"


	5. Chapter 5: The Mission

**Chapter five: The mission**

By the time the escort arrived, all persons who resided in the temple were waiting at the back entrance of the temple.

"I don't like this, to be quite honest." one of the priests, Bluebird, spoke up, "All of us going out of the temple? I think only a few should go and rest should stay behind to guard the temple."

Copperlock sent them a look. "It's not like we were doing anything, besides, Hymnal's already locking the place down, the moment we're all out for good, that entrance is just gonna become another wall, no way in, or out."

"It seems like we are just walking targets, or do you forget we have a barrage of assassins just itching to off us?" Bluebird snapped back.

Xernia spoke up from Ironclad's side. "Bluebird, enough. Be thankful, Alpha Trion knows what he's doing, he's the Ancient one. Everything is going to be fine."

"I still don't like this." Bluebird shook her head, her arms crossing.

It was Luna's turn to speak up then. "You think any of us like standing out here, this whole scrap started because there was a literal hunting party trying to slice my fur off my protoform! This isn't easy for any of us Bluebird!"

"Then why are we standing out here when no one wants to? I don't get why we are all heading to the Hall? It is a lot closer to the Decepticon outpost on the side of Iacon than the Temple. I don't understand why we all must head there, when a message or data pad from Alpha Trion delivered by a scout would perfectly suffice." Bluebird argued.

Luna was quick to respond. "You seem to forget that this is the mech who raised me from a foal! Do not doubt his judgement! He's likely gotten hold of information which shows that we're in more danger here! And is getting us to safety!" She snapped back, moving stand in front of the larger femme fully.

"The temple is more than well equiped and no bot but a priest can control the lift to the inner temple. I'm not risking my neck for this, mech who raised you or not, he holds no importance to me." Bluebird said angrily. "You all go, and get offed by the snipers. I'm staying where I know I'll be safe, anyone who wishes to join me is free to."

Luna just rolled her optics and stalked off to the side. "Unbelievable, why is it that you're so damn short sighted all of a sudden?! Eventually they will get in, and a few piles of explosives is going to be their down button for the lift!" She snapped back, hooved pede slamming into the ground and leaving a spider web like crack.

"Well why are you being such a glitch all of a sudden?! It's my life, it's my choice! Do what you want with yours, but I'm staying. I'll take my luck in a cryostation chamber near Primus rather than paint a giant red target on my back by going out there."

Luna just sighed, reaching up to rub her digit tips over her closed optics. "Very well, I guess we'll just have to await news of the others demise to see which of us is right then." She finally answered, moving to sit on the floor under a small overhang her small stature allowed her to squeeze into. "Good luck Bluebird."

Bluebird said nothing, just turned and went to the lift to go into the inner Temple.

"That was less than pleasant," Hymnal commented once the other femme left.

Luna huffed. "She's too damn stubborn for her own good if you ask me, gah, how is it that's I've only punched her twice?"

"Four times, two of which during you're 'freak outs'" Temba piped up.

"Never mind." Luna huffed.

"She brings up a valid point, however. We are rather exposed outside of the Temple." Hymnal said, their voice even.

"If I could, I'd use this damn gem to make a shield for us… but we all know I can hold it up for about as long as a sparkling has an attention span… and then you'd have to lug my comatose aft around." Luna huffed, trying to glare at it, after all the practice she'd put into it, she still wasn't getting anywhere with building up any kind of stamina with the thing, and all of her testing on it throughout her lifetime had been so far inconclusive.

"We wouldn't wish to tap into that power, only when it is absolutely needed," Hymnal said, a thoughtful look on their face. "But we need a plan incase we are ambushed on our way to the Hall."

They all fell into thought, but before an idea could be discussed, a large armoured transporter appeared, it's rumbling engines only then heard by the group, mostly due to the cloaking field it had on until moments prior.

Within half a breem it had landed in the courtyard which stood in front of the temple, the Transports main doors at the back opening and two lines of heavily armed soldiers came striding out, weapons in standby positions as they approached the group, the leader of which stopped before them, putting those behind him at an immediate halt.

"You're the temple residents we were sent to escort to the Hall? Alpha Trion is awaiting your arrival." The large Iaconian mech declared, easily towering over all but Copperlock and Iornclad.

Hymnal stepped forwards, their posture and attitude impeccable in front of the new mechs.

"We are," they swept a servo out to gesture to the group. "Fifteen in all, will your transport be capable of holding us all?"

The lead mech nodded. "Yes Ma'am… we were alerted there'd be sixteen, where is the last one?" He enquired.

"One of our own has decided to go into cryostation within the Temple." Hymnal informed.

The mech nodded, before glancing around again, this time spotting Luna in particular. "They were right, you really do stand out Mrs Luna, I have word from Alpha Trion saying that you're not fond of enclosed spaces, correct?" He enquired.

Luna nodded. "It comes with my coding. Despite being raised in it, captivity is something I never feel comfortable within." She admitted.

"We should get in now," Copperlock said, looking around at the abandoned buildings with shifty optics.

The mech nodded, gesturing for them all to enter the transport, which they quickly did, Luna easily outpacing the rest in a few short bounds, hastily finding a spot on one of the massive chairs built into the main areas walls and strapping herself in, watching as the others followed and did similar.

It took Hymnal some maneuvering before they could fit into a seat, their wings making things difficult. They managed to finally wrangle their wings into place and settled down, ready for the flight.

Luna couldn't help but chuckle. "Minus the wings and somebot might think you have a rust problem in your undercarriage!" She joked, trying to distract herself from the two unknown mechs who'd just sat down either side of her.

Hymnal tilted their helm to the side, "I'm afraid I don't understand, what would cause such an assumption?"

The hybrid just shook her helm. "Nevermind, I'm just glad I'm going home." She admitted, glancing towards where the doors were closing and where she could hear the engines firing back up. "It does feel odd though… we've been in the Temple so long… and now, this? I think the shock hasn't quite registered yet." She admitted.

"I wonder what Alpha Trion has planned." Hymnal said softly, looking out one of the windows.

Luna shrugged. "Probably something… err… well, he's the eccentric type when you get to know him, so pretty much anything."

Hymnal hummed, deep in thought.

The rest of the journey was uneventful, mild chatter was flung between the bots surrounding them and towards them at some points, much to Luna's dismay at one point when the mech to her right leaned in closer and tried to ask what all the microfibres on her armour were for.

"Err… insulation?" Was her brief answer, feeling her audios droop back and figure sink into itself in hopes of achieving some more room.

"Perhaps we should save the talking for when we reach our destination," Hymnal said flatly to the other passengers, looking around with a "no-nonsense" look on their face plates.

Luna gave a curt nod in agreement, watching as the soldier frowned and returned to his upright position to focus on Hymnal. "Why? We're allowed to interact, jeez, was just curious about floppy audios here." He responded, jerking a digit at Luna, whose features quickly switched to that of 'peeved off'.

"Hey! Who the frag are you calling Floppy audios?!" She snapped, lifting up her hoof and bringing it down on his left pede, nowhere near as hard as she could, but it still left the mech yelping in pain and reaching down to clutch the dented armour there.

Hymnal gave Luna a scolding look, but their optics clearly shown their amusement at Luna's actions.

Luna returned with an admittedly embarrassed look. "Sorry, temper got the better of me then."

The soldier was clearly not best pleased. "You think?! Damnit I'm gonna have to go to med bay to get this fixed! Hey, Crankshaft, wanna do me a solid and help me there? This damn femmes totaled my pede!" He exclaimed, gesturing towards the limb whilst addressing the mech opposite to Luna, who'd been completely uninterested in the situation by that point."

"You're own fault for rilling her, surely you've heard of this Hybrids temper? It's practically legendary in Iacon by this point." Was his friend's response, causing Luna to duck in on herself in embarrassment.

"I thought they were all damn exaggerations? Look at her! She looks like a malformed crystal she's so thin and tiny!" He snapped back.

Hymnal sighed and closed their optics, feeling a helmache coming on.

"How much longer till the Hall did you say?" Hymnal called up to the captain.

"Few breems at most ma'am, they had to clear us for landing due to the size of our craft." He responded, turning back to focus on whatever task he had at servo. "Oh and Longhaul, stop pestering the Hybrid, Alpha Trion has close ties with her and I doubt you'd want to end up on the receiving end of his wrath." He warned.

The mech gulped but nodded, sitting bolt straight and moving to tuck his injured pede behind the other, as if in an attempt to hide the injury from his snickering crew mates.

The Captain was right in his call however, as they landed not a few breems later, the doors sliding open to reveal the form of on Alpha Trion, a warm, yet tired smile on his features.

Luna had as much hesitation at that moment as a sparkling as she practically ripped her harness off, and with a powerful horizontal kick, sent herself flying out the back of the transport like a rocket with an excited squeal far outside her normal dignity as she tackled the mech, sending both of them rolling for a moment before stopping in a laughing pile. "Luna! What have I told your about lunge tackles?!"

"Err…. they always wreck whatever I was standing on?" Glancing back she took note of the wide opticed looks of the soldiers as they looked at the significant dent in the bottom of their transport, along with her Temple mates trying their hardest not to laugh or shake their helms at the scene. "Oops." She muttered, audios lowering against her helm in embarrassment. "My bad!" She called back to the Captain, who had joined his crew in staring at her, much to her growing discomfort, causing her to quickly clamber off the Ancient mech and duck behind him. "Sorry."

"Perhaps we should proceed into the building?" Hymnal offered, walking out of the ship, quickly followed by Temba and the rest of their small group.

Alpha Trion nodded, nodding farewell to the Captain, before turning and bringing his arm up over Luna's shoulders in a one armed hug as he led her and the others inside. "Of course, of course, quickly, there is much to discuss." He responded.

The group headed into the Hall, heavy doors closing behind them. They went into a small meeting room where they all sat down in large seats, Alpha Trion sitting at the head of the table. "Now, you were all brought here for different reasons… hmm, it seems we are short a bot, Bluebird correct?" He enquired.

"She requested to remain in the temple." Hymnal informed.

The Ancient mech nodded in understanding. "Very well, now, I understand you are all confused as to why I called you here from your refuge, and it is simple… we're sending you off world. You see, recent sources have revealed, that, due to the incident which lead to your prolonged stay at the temple, you were all marked on the Decepticon hit list, not just Hymnal, and you Luna."

This caused a murmur to break out among the bots in the room, all whispering to each other with concerned and worried looks.

Luna jolted at the notion. "You mean, because of what happened, they're all being targeted too?! But they did nothing wrong! They were just in the wrong place at the wrong time!" She exclaimed before turning to them. "I can't even begin to find the words I need to apologise to all of you! I put you all in such unnecessary danger…"

"So now what? You cart us off world? Do you got a ship for that?" one mech asked.

Alpha Trion nodded. "Yes, one for each of you. You'll each join an Autobot Convoy, with your mates if that is such, and be transported to safe neutral planets, outside of the reach of the war, from there, you are free to do as you wish." He responded calmly.

Luna nudged his servo with her own. "What about you?" She got out, concern quickly forming on her features.

"As Head of the Hall of Records, I plan to remain, now, Temba, you will be going with a Convoy leaving Iacon Starport in three joors, this is by choice I must remind you, we will not force your servos. Ironclad, Xeneria, you're convoy is the one after Temba's, and so the trend goes." He announced, pushing single data pads to each individual bot. "These are your passes, and don't worry about accommodation, you're flying first class." He declared humorously.

Luna wasn't done though. "If you're staying, then as head Data Clerk, it is my duty to stand by your side and aid in the documentation of this war! It must be recorded so such events will have a lesser chance of happening again!" She declared.

"I will not leave Primus's spark unattended." Hymnal said as well, "It is my duty to stick with my deity until the end."

Luna nodded in agreement. "And if they're staying, there ain't no fragging way I'm moving! Alpha, normally I would listen and do as you say without question, but I refuse to leave when the two bots I hold closest to my spark, remain on this war torn planet! With their helms on a most wanted list!" She snapped.

The other bots in the room looked between Alpha trion and Luna, various degrees of curiosity on their faces.

Alpha Trion looked to Luna, a slight frown on his features. "Luna, I am trying to keep you from harm's way, the Hall is no longer safe for you, and your spark condition makes you the most vulnerable in this situation, please, I will be fine. I am fine with the others making this decision, but as your Sire, I want what is best for my only creation." He declared, watching as Luna's features dropped into shock and she failed to get even the first syllable of a response out.

Ironclad spoke up then. "So… looks like we're all going our separate ways…" He said, his gruff voice almost down to a mumble, his servo intertwined with his mate. "We've both decided to take this, we don't want any part of this war." there was a murmur around the table as others spoke up about wanting to go. The only two who didn't speak up was Hymnal, Luna, and Alpha Trion.

Hymnal had a contemplative look on their face. They were deep in thought, about what, no one could tell.

"I will be returning to the temple shortly." They said suddenly, "there is something I must do."

Xernia gave the Priest a look. "Go back there? You planning to inform Bluebird?" The femme guard enquired.

"I need to do a few things in light of this news." They stood, "I will be going alone." they said sternly.

There was a silence in the room for a long moment as the group all exchanged looks, wanting to go to reinforce the Priest, but also knowing not to question their judgement.

The silence didn't last long, as Luna had apparently, finally recovered from whatever shock she'd gone into. "What did you just say you were?!" She exclaimed, apparently having not noticed that the conversation had continued.

"I'm going back to the Temple, Luna. There is something I must do before I will willingly leave." they informed, "and i will be going alone."

"Eh uh ie?" She responded, glossa failing her for a moment.

"I will be leaving shortly here, I won't be back for any length of time. If i have not come back within an orn, assume i have either perished or decided to stay." Hymnal continued, standing up from their seat.

"Oh… ok… well, safe journey, and stick to the shadows, and don't do anything stupid!" She shouted as Hymnal made for the door. "It ain't worth the tombstone!"

Hymnal then left the room.

Once the door closed, Luna felt herself slump, before sliding back into her chair. "Did I say something wrong? Ah pit what was that sire scrap even about! You know the council never let you adopt me! Why the sudden change?!" She exclaimed, trying to understand at least something which had happened in the last few breems.

"The answer to that is quite simple young one, with the Council all dead, all I needed to do was speak to Optimus, and, he was able to convince the remaining strutless lower ranking, somehow still functioning council members to pass the adoption. I wanted to tell you in bot, hence why I did not alert you to when it got passed a few orns back." He responded,reaching out to run a servo down her helm like he used to whenever she was spooked and needed comfort.

The comfort didn't last though as she pulled away, turning her focus to the table dejectedly. "And now, you want to send me off world."

"For your own protection, Luna. The Decepticons have you and Hymnal on their list, prices are on your helms. You need to leave before you have every Decepticon and bounty hunter knocking down the front Temple doors." Alpha Trion said, a touch of desperation in his voice.

"Wait… what?! Since when?! I thought it was just those hunters?! Is that why Epsial and Rifter got offed?!" Luna exclaimed, very nearly jumping out of her chair hadn't she grabbed the desk at the same time.

"For all intensive purposes, I can assume so."

"And you just let Hymnal _walk_ out of here?!"

"There was no stopping them, we've both known Hymnal enough to know when they are serious, and they are far too stubborn to allow anyone to accompany them."

"They could get shot!" Luna snapped back.

"Luna! You think I don't know this?"

"I know you know! But you still let them go! Why are we even on the Decepticons most wanted list anyway?!"

"Information, Hymnal is head Priest with knowledge of Cybertron's inner workings. And you have access to the Hall's knowledge through your processors."

"Ah… fraggit… Ok, the whole exodus thing is making a bit more sense now… but why didn't you let them know about that juicy little detail, _before_ they left?"

"I believe they were already deduced the situation for themselves."

Luna's helm connected with the table, waving a servo in the air as she spoke. "There's no point arguing this point is there? I take it you have a nice little ship set up for us to get to the next solar system or something?"

"There are a few ships ready, you will be setting out in different ships for covert reasons. The smaller the crew, the less likely you will be picked up and any scanners." Trion informed, sitting back down in his chair.

"So? I'm going with Hymnal? Or is the last chance I have to see them before one of us gets found by hunters? Namely me." Luna responded.

"That depends on who is leaving with who. Hymnal has promised to return within the orn, so it depends on who decides to stay till then."

"No disrespect, Alpha Trion," one of the guards spoke up, "But if the 'cons are after our tailpipes, i don't wanna stick around and give them the opportunity." there was an agreeing murmur throughout the room.

"The ships are ready to leave whenever you decide to leave." Alpha trion said.

"So you are all ready to just leave Hymnal behind?" Luna said angrily,

"There is no point in waiting around, you heard what Alpha Trion here said, those hunters are out for you two, they are a walking target." another bot said, their tone upset.

Luna let of an irritated groan. "Then… I'm not going to stop you, go if that's what you want, but I'm gonna wait that damn orn for Hymnal, they're in too much of a state to go it alone, I'm going with them if we do end up leaving, because I am still considering just welding myself to the nearest wall!" She added at the end, shooting a glare towards her now official sire.

"You're right," Copperlock stated, "We've all seen what's been goin' on with the Head Priest, they ain't in the right-o-mind to travel space alone. I doubt they'd leave if it was just them goin'."

Luna nodded, sending the mech a thankful look as murmurs of agreement went around the table. "I've memorised practically every data pad the hall had on the functions of the processor through my life cycle, namely as a way to identify why everyone deemed me too different to function in your society, but it's also helped me see exactly what you just said, Anxiety, Depression, there's the significant potential that… if Primus does… I don't… we've all been thinking it so I won't say it,but, if that does happen… Hymnal could even lose the very will to live, I… I can't just… that thought would be my end if I left them here, I already know it."

A grave silence settled over those in the conference room as they processed Luna's words.

"I'll be waitin' with yee," Copperlock spoke up, breaking the bleak silence. "I can' do much, but i'll be waitin' for the Head Priest." a few others spoke up, but most remained silent.

Luna nodded to all of them in thanks, and Alpha Trion smiled a bit.

"It is settled. The new plan is all but three ships will set out tonight with those who wish to leave. The rest will remain and wait for Head Priest Hymnal."

What followed was a cluster of agreements.

It was settled a few jours later. Copperlock, Temba and Evelia would be staying with Alpha Trion, his guards and Luna until Hymnal's return. The rest of the bots would be leaving in groups in three on individual shuttles off world to the nearest neutral space.

It was a sad time, saying goodbye for likely the last time, the majority promising to spread the word of the War, and try their best to prevent such travesties occurring wherever they were, others, promising to stay safe and under the radar, hoping to start new lives, and maybe, if they were lucky, raise families.

Once that was over, and they had left, their echoing pede steps fading at some point down the corridor, the room fell deathly quiet.

In the room, only Alpha Trion and Luna remained.

"So… we got one orn to be… sire and creation huh?" Luna sighed, slumping in her chair slightly and glancing at the ancient mech from behind her visor.

Alpha Trion sighed at her words, placing a servo on the top of her helm.

"I've always viewed you as my creation, Luna." he said

"I know… but… officially… to me at least, it always made me feel like there was a barrier preventing something… no amount of research helped me figure out what though…" She admitted.

Alpha Trion drew Luna into a hug, his much larger frame covering her smaller one and easily helping him wrench her out of her seat, not that she resisted.

"Better make the best of this, then." he said quietly.

Luna let off a muffled chuckle, pushing her helm up into the frayed and cracked wiring which she used to nibble on as a foal. "Yeah… I'd like that… sorry for having a go at you earlier."

"I think you had valid reasoning behind it." he chuckled.

"They're my best friend, of course I'd want to know why you just let them walk out."

"I could see it in their optics, Luna. They are scared. They needed closure before leaving the Temple." Alpha Trion said softy.

"Yeah, but the whole 'most wanted list' bit, might of helped remind them to keep to the shadows. I guess that's what my opinion is on it."

"How about we take our processors off all of this? We still have the viewing screen working if you want to watch something, we could invite Copperlock, Temba and Evelia if you wish?"

She really let off a chuckle at that. "I doubt 'Planet Cybertron' is exactly up to date… Time, Space, and the potential for something else?"

"One of your old favourites?"

Luna nodded, gesturing to the red gem in it's ever present spot. "It asks some good questions, and you know how I am with finding the answers."

"How is your training with that strange little thing going? Ever since I heard what you did at the hall… well, it's certainly another reason you should stay far from any Decepticon."

"I… I haven't really? It burns through so much of my reserves, I've had to take double to rations for three cycles after… and when the supply began depleting…"

"I did notice you'd lost some weight, all of you have… however, lose anymore, and I might begin fearing you're turning into a neo snake. The hunters may lose interest in you if that happens though." The ancient mech mused.

"I would never become a snake! Such an occurrence isn't even possible!" Luna exclaimed, flaring her plating at the sheer audacity of the notion, her sire just responded with an jovial chuckle.

"And yet it is fully possible for you to control powerful energy waves from a gem which we've never been able to remove from you." As if to demonstrate, he gave the blue cabling a light tug, trying to bring it beyond the back of her helm, only for the cabling to immediately wrench itself from his grip and settle back around her neck. "Luna, at this point, I'm very nearly tempted to classify it as a sentient species."

"Alphaaaaa…. Nooooo, it's a rock!"

"I'm sure you saw the files of the Gargaliyan Rock people from Manhuritan 5?"

"... Ok, you have me there… can we go watch this documentary?"

"Of course young one, alert your friends to our plan, I'm sure they'll be more than happy to pass some time without having to worry so much on their continued chances of survival."

"Well, that didn't sound morbid in _any way_ at all."


End file.
